Breaking Rules
by Sloth'sGoneWild
Summary: When their simple mission goes wrong, Eren and Levi unknowingly use a Portkey hidden in the most unlikely of places. Injured and disbelieving, the two of them find themselves in the Great Hall of the strangest and most frightening school they'd ever seen. It was going to take a while to get used to. Set after Shingeki No Kyojin anime series, Year 5 of Harry Potter.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

"Captain Levi! What now?" Eren yelled, clearly panicking. Levi, at first, made no move to talk as he raced through the Forest of Giant Trees aback his horse but then gave a very forced sounding sigh.

"We'll try and outrun them. If we keep up this pace, we should make it back to base. Do _not_ try to fight them; you can't afford to get injured again." Levi spoke sternly and monotonously. Eren's eyes widened as he turned to look behind him once more, almost pulling the muscle in his neck as the horse beneath him jolted with the unsteady movement of galloping. "Don't look back!" Levi snapped without, as Eren soon noticed, even looking back at him. How did that clean-freak even know what he was doing?

Shaking the thoughts from his head, Eren once again focussed his mind on just trying to stay alive and outrun these mindless titans. Two four meter and a seven meter class were sprinting towards them, acting like the savage beasts they were as they barrelled towards them. The titans' eyes were hungry and glistening in a frightening kind of way, their faces seemed too happy, it was as if they were enjoying the hunt as much as what would come after if Eren and Levi didn't pick their pace up a little.

The trees were tall with large branches and broad trunks, perfect for 3-D Manoeuvre Gear. Eren noticed how easy it would be to just take these three titans down here and now, they weren't Aberrant they were just plain stupid. Although just because they weren't the smartest it didn't mean that they didn't have a chance against Eren, Levi no, but if they all attacked at once maybe Eren. The young titan-shifter could feel sweat beading in his palms and making his hands slip across the beaten, leather reins, he could hear his heart thrumming in his ears at the heavy footfalls of the advancing titans behind him.

Eren swallowed past the terrible dryness in his throat as a rather large bang reverberated behind him. Just the vibrations made the horse beneath him stumble, catching itself before it fell and carrying on as though nothing happened. Slightly behind Levi, Eren took a chance to quickly glance behind him; he supposed that on this occasion looking back would be excused.

Although, as his head whipped around, he really wished he hadn't bothered looking at all. Through the filtered vision his brunette hair gave him, Eren saw an unusually large titan heading towards them. The height of it could rival his own height in his transformed state, it looked around twenty meters; however its eyes seemed more lethal than all the titans he'd ever seen put together. They were of a blood-red colouration, wide with tiny black slits for pupils; long black hair hung messily from its humanoid head like an unruly mane. Like many other titans that he'd seen this one seemed to have a low intelligence and was more than a little beastly.

"Hey, you might want to look back!" Eren shouted as loudly as he could over the earth-shattering thuds the titan behind him was making as he ran. Levi turned his head slightly so that he could hear what Eren was saying and then he turned to face the creature behind them. The younger of the two could clearly see that Levi was shocked at what had appeared behind them, even if the emotion wasn't visible, Levi's eyes quickly narrowed as he pushed his chestnut-coloured horse to move even faster.

"Keep moving. We'll see if it tries anything. We don't know for sure whether or not it's an Aberrant. We need to get back to the cas-" An ear-splitting roar penetrated their ear drums and cut Levi off mid-order. Both Eren and Levi turned to see what was going on this time; the oversized titan was swinging for the smaller ones. It had already stomped upon one of the four-meter class titans and was now lunging for the other two. It was rather easy for it to kill them, all it took was a single swing of its monstrous arm and both of them were smashed acrimoniously against two unsuspecting trees. Unexpectedly, it lifted the limp, mangled body of the now steaming seven- meter class titan and dropped it into its ghastly open mouth. Eren felt sick.

Unfortunately, that lone swing had created a terribly strong onslaught of wind, sending both Eren and Levi flying, neither had any control over the direction they soared in, nor did they have the time to use their 3DMG. Branches, both large and small, thwacked against them and sliced their already bruised skin as they went. Eren noticed that the strange titan seemed to show a twisted kind of happiness from seeing the two of them in pain, it's thin, red lips curled upwards into a bone-chilling smile as Eren felt his body abruptly stop moving.

At first, he thought he had hit the ground and was dying, but then his eyes opened (he never realised that he'd closed them until now) and he saw two rows of giant, knife- like teeth smiling at him. Eren heard a low groan of pain and, automatically, his green eyes searched for the source. Levi was enclosed tightly in the titan's left fist; crimson liquid was running down the side of his head, glistening evilly in the dimming daylight. His face was twisted into pain, an expression that Eren had never seen on the man's face before. This was serious. Really serious.

The titan growled quietly and unevenly, it almost sounded like it was laughing. Suddenly, he was moved even higher up, he was literally eyes to eye with the beast. So was Levi. That was when Eren realised that he was helplessly dangling in mid-air, encircled in a titan's clawed fist. A pungent stench invaded Eren's nostrils as the beast opened its giant mouth, saliva glistening grotesquely as it hung in strings from jaw to jaw.

That was when both of them realised, this was the end.

They'd gone out on this mission to secure the area and ensure that no titans would threaten them in their base in the giant castle outside the walls, Levi and Eren had gone out alone, not expecting there to be any real problems. They'd gone out to check the surrounding area many, many times without a cause for concern, other than the mindless giants wondering around hungrily. But this time, it was different. They should've brought backup with them. Eren hadn't exactly had the best of feelings about going out today… it looked like his gut-feeling was right. Mikasa was going to be seriously pissed off, and Armin was probably going to have a breakdown. Again. Although he'd gotten a lot stronger since the day the wall first fell, he was still… well he was still Armin.

Eren was harshly brought out of his thoughts by a coarse scream, he looked over to Levi and saw that the man's lips were tightly sealed in a silent grimace of pain- he'd probably broken his ribs. That was when he was brought to the realisation that the one doing the screaming and giving out grunts and groans of pain was _him_. How had he not realised that it was he who was making all the noise? Was he really thinking that much he'd mentally detached himself from his body or something?

A shiny glint within the titans open mouth caught his eye. Eren felt himself moving closer to the object inside, he was about to be devoured. Upon closer inspection, Eren noticed that the shiny object seemed to be made of metal; it looked like a giant ring and was adorned with small blue gems of some sort. Strange markings were engraved around the edge; it almost looked like a crown, but not quite. It wasn't nice enough for someone of that stature, especially not in the condition it was in now.

Looking quickly over to his left, he saw Levi moving closer and closer towards him. The giant monster of a titan was attempting to devour both of them in one go by the looks of it. Levi looked at him with a dead kind of look in his eyes.

"Eren, can you move your arm or not?" He asked, referring to whether or not Eren was going to be able to transform into a titan and save them both. Disappointingly, said boy was not able to move either of his arms, his right was spreading searing pain all over his body, probably broken, whereas his left was able to shift slightly but was pinned to his side by the crushing fingers around him. Only his right arm was outside the grip, ironic.

"No. I think my arm's broken! Levi, I'm sorry! I didn't mean for this to happen!" Eren felt tears spring to his eyes; he blinked them back, feeling pathetic.

"It's not your fault." Levi answered simply. "This is the fault of no one, but either way, we're probably going to die now. It seems our decision to go out without backup today was wrong, therefore we must face the consequences."

"But- but we can't die now! There must be something we can do!" Eren argued, fighting against his own body as he attempted to lift his broken arm.

"Stop it, brat!" Levi snapped harshly, his face twisting into disgust as the clean-freak was thoroughly exposed to the disgusting stench of the titan's terrible breath.

"But-"

"No! We made a decision and it was wrong!" Eren stopped struggling completely as he came to terms with what was being said to him.

"I'm sorry." He mumbled after a few seconds of silence, they were moments away from being eaten now, less than a meter away from entering the mouth. This titan seemed to be taking its sweet time; it was almost like it was waiting for something to happen, either that or it was thinking twice about brutally killing them.

Then, on the contrary to the previous pace, everything went by in a blur. The titan quickly thrust Eren into its mouth, shortly followed by Levi who gave a small cry of pain as his body was roughly thrown onto the monstrous tongue. Eren quickly reached out one of his bloody hands and caught hold of one of the giant teeth, he cried out as it sliced his soft flesh and cause more red to seep out.

"Eren!" Levi called out. Said boy thought it was strange seeing Levi like this. He was normally so… strict and cold, but now he was… asking Eren for help. Despite this sudden thought, Eren managed to swing his body slightly so that his broken arm was within Levi's grasp.

"Grab my hand!" Eren yelled in a panic. Levi quickly followed the order, his eyes widening unusually as he realised that he was weighing down Eren's bad arm. Almost on cue with the thought Levi had had, the brunette screamed in agony. Eren's hand slipped a little down the tooth and he soon realised that this was the dagger-like tooth with the strange object caught on it.

The large metal ring, upon closer inspection, seemed to have rounded edges, so naturally it wouldn't hurt his hand so much if he were to grab hold of that until the two of them could devise a plan to free themselves. With a loud grunt, Eren allowed himself to slip a little further into the titan's repulsive mouth as he lowered his hand a little more.

"What are you doing?! You'd better not be losing your grip you goddamn brat!" Levi yelled. Although he tried to hide it, Eren could tell just by hearing the tone of his voice that he was panicking. Eren couldn't really blame him though. This was exactly how countless numbers of the human population, including people who he'd worked with, had died.

Concentrating too much to give an answer, Eren slid his hand down a little further, the sharp tooth slicing his palm open even deeper, crimson ribbons wrapped around his dirty arm as they ran beneath his jacket sleeve. He was almost there now… just a little more… He grabbed hold of the metal and felt the difference immediately. The metal was smooth and cool to the touch, despite the fact that it was stored inside a titan's ugly mouth.

For a short few second nothing happened, but then everything began to swim. The inside of the titan's mouth began to swirl around, faster and faster, all the colours began to mix into a spinning white. Eren could faintly hear Levi yelling up at him, ordering to know what was going on. Was he seeing the same as Eren was? Left, right and centre, Eren could see nothing, no matter where he looked, everything was the same. He began to feel like he was floating but at a rather fast speed. If it wasn't for all the experience he'd had with the 3-D Manoeuvre Gear, he'd of probably succumbed to the stomach- turning nausea and thrown up; instead he waited out the ride.

Fear bubbled in the pit of his stomach as a mixture of browns, golds, blues and blacks came together to create a blurry picture. It almost looked like… a hall maybe? There were definitely people down there. Whatever it was, it was coming up to meet him, and fast. Eren could still feel Levi's clammy hand weighing his broken arm down, that's when he realised; there was no way that either of them could survive an impact like this.

A loud cracking sound burst in his eardrums, his vision went momentarily black, and a cold surface pressed against him. He'd landed. And he was still alive. Eren tried to open his eyelids; all he got was an unfocussed image of many, many blurry figures sitting at various tables. He could hear a steady rumbling of confused noise, then a panicked shout, and then… nothing. His eyes closed and he fell into unconsciousness.

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><p><strong>AN: Hi there, thank you for reading the first chapter of 'Breaking Rules'. Please let me know what you think of it and whether or not I should continue the story.**

**Also, please excuse any OOC-ness, it will get better! **

**Thanks :)**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

"Harry, what the bloody hell are you on about?" Ron Weasley asked his glasses-clad friend disbelievingly.

"Look! Right there!" Harry emphasized, throwing his hands out in front of him and motioning to the area Ron was supposed to be looking in. "There, between the shafts! You can't miss it, Ron; it's harnessed to the coach!"

"I can't see anything there!"

"It's a giant, horrible-looking horse thing!"

"There's nothing there!"

"Yes there-" An odd thought suddenly struck Harry halfway through his protest. "You really can't see them?" He almost whispered. Was he, Harry Potter, finally losing the plot? Had he gone crazy at long last?

"_No_!"

"…Oh." So he _was_ going mad then.

"Are you sure you're feeling okay, Harry?" Ron looked highly concerned for his friend.

"Yeah…" Mumbled Harry, wondering how on earth you could _not_ see the giant horse-like creatures standing majestically before them. On the contrary to that description, they looked kind of slimy and gross. It was difficult to exactly pinpoint was they were as Harry had never seen anything like them. Had they always been pulling the coach? Did they previously have some sort of spell on them that prevented Harry from seeing them beforehand? The uneasy clearing of Ron's throat signalled that he must have been trying to talk to Harry whilst he was lost deep in thought.

"Shall we get in then?" He asked uncertainly.

"Um, yeah. Yeah let's get in."

"It's quite alright," Luna's dreamy voice sounded from behind them before they could follow through with their words. Harry almost jumped out of his skin. "I can see them too, you know, you aren't going mad or anything."

"Really? You can?" Harry turned to face her hopefully, happy that someone else was seeing what he was seeing.

"Yes, I've always been able to see them. That's why I can safely reassure you that they've always pulled the carriages. So don't worry, Harry, you're just as sane as I am." And with that, Luna turned her attention to the carriage, fixating her silvery-blue eyes on the skeletal beings before her. She smiled to herself before climbing inside the carriage, Harry and Ron looked at each other for a moment before following her lead and also clambering in.

Harry felt slightly better now that he knew he wasn't losing his mind or anything, he still wasn't completely sure though. Fidgeting in his seat slightly, the raven-haired boy caught sight of the creatures' reflections in the window, he watched uncomfortably as their wide, white eyeballs scanned their surroundings curiously and warm vapour steamed from their nostrils as they breathed in the chilly air.

An unexplainable sinking feeling presented itself in Harry's gut, he felt very antsy and nervous today. Was it because it was his first day back at Hogwarts? Or was it because of the time he spent with the Order? Maybe it wasn't any of the things that harry thought it was, it felt like something more sinister was going to take place this term. As if Harry hadn't had enough of that already. Sinking deeper and deeper into thought, Harry became rather preoccupied with staring out of the slightly dirty window as the first raindrops splashed freshly onto the surface.

He was so consumed in his thoughts again that Harry didn't even notice when Neville and Ginny entered the carriage, or when it started moving.

All he knew was that this year, something big was going to happen. He could feel it.

* * *

><p>A rough jerking of his shoulder signalled Harry to wake up, although he didn't remember ever falling asleep in the first place. Squinting his bright green eyes open, Harry waited whilst everything focussed, his eyesight really was terrible, even with the glasses. Looking around, the lanky wizard found that he and Ron were the only ones left inside the carriage's dark interior, the others had all gone.<p>

"Harry! You're finally awake! I thought that I was going to have to carry you for second!" Ron removed his hands from his friend's shoulders. Stretching, Harry sighed and clambered out into the cold, damp air. He and Ron joined the large student body hurrying up the rain-soaked stone steps into the castle, making small talk as they went.

When they walked inside the building Harry saw bright candlelight illuminating the entire Entrance Hall. Their footsteps all echoed loudly over the pouring rain outside. With the entire school making their way to the same destination, it was a little over-crowded, and for once, Harry appreciated it. Walking amongst his schoolmates felt so much better than the boring loneliness of the Dursley's house.

Before long Harry noticed that they had successfully reached the large double doors on the right hand side of the corridor, he was starving, coming to think of it. Harry hadn't eaten since… well he couldn't exactly remember but it must've been either on the train or even before that. Anyway, walking into the Great Hall, it felt as homely, grand, and welcoming as it always did- even more so after _this_ summers' events. After finding Hermione and Neville, they all decided to sit together. The long wooden benches at the Gryffindor table were already beginning to fill up with the mass of students attempting to find seats by their friends; it would be even more packed when the little First-Years had to find places to sit. Harry smiled to himself as he remembered the feeling of being a new to the school; Hagrid had helped him out so much that year, just like he had any other time too.

Scanning his eyes across the staff table, his heart missed a beat when he saw that Hagrid wasn't sitting there cheerily like he normally was- in fact, he wasn't there at all.

"Ron, look!" Harry elbowed his red-haired friend in the ribs without bothering to look at him.

"Oi, watch it!" Ron complained, "Look at what? I swear Harry, if you're seeing things again you're going to- Hey where's Hagrid?"

"That's what I was telling you to look at, Hagrid isn't there."

"Hey, 'Mione, d'you know where he went?" Ron leaned forwards with his arms propped up on the hard table surface. Hermione gazed up at the staff table with a confused look.

"No, I don't have any idea where he's gone. You don't think they've gotten rid of him, do you?"

"Of course not! They'd never get rid of Hagrid! Dumbledore wouldn't let anyone!" Ron protested strongly against the idea.

"Hang on a moment, who's that?" Hermione pointed her head towards the staff table once again. Sitting in the place that Hagrid should've occupied was a small, toad-like woman. She had short, curly mouse-brown hair and wore a horrific pink, fluffy cardigan over her robes. A gasp of recognition sounded as Harry recognised the woman.

"It's _her_!"

"Who?" questioned Hermione, not taking her eyes away from the stranger.

"She was at my hearing, she works for Fudge!" Harry referred to his previous run-in with the Ministry of Magic.

"What's the Ministry at Hogwarts for?" Ron exclaimed and Harry shushed him for being too loud.

"I, personally, have no idea. But whatever's happening can't possibly be good." Hermione answered.

"What d'you think, Harry?"

"Dunno." Was the only answer he could give, what was going on? Where was Hagrid? Harry turned away from the staff table and returned his eyes to his own.

* * *

><p>"After consuming that delicious feast, I would like a few moments of your attention for the usual start-of-term notices." Dumbledore stood behind his usual eagle podium proudly before his students. "I will start off by informing the First-Years that the Forbidden Forest is, in fact, forbidden- no student is to enter.<p>

Mr Filch, our ever-loyal caretaker, has also asked me to remind all of you that magic is not permitted in corridors between classes. There are also a number of other things that are not permitted, for further information, or to view the full list, please see the paper fastened to Mr Filch's office door." The elderly wizard paused to smile and rub his hands together, his blue eyes twinkling merrily behind his half-moon spectacles.

"Now, onto the next few things. I'd like to inform you that we have had two changes in staffing this year; Professor Grubbly-Plank has been welcomed back to re-take position as Care of Magical Creatures teacher. We are also delighted to introduce Professor Umbridge, our new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher." Harry clapped along with the rest of student body, with bottom-levels of enthusiasm. He was confused. Why was the Ministry sending one of their own to take position of DADA teacher at Hogwarts? They say the job is cursed, Harry wondered what would become of Umbridge.

Once the clapping had ceased, Dumbledore once again continued, "The Quidditch team try-outs will take place on the-" He broke off and turned to look expectantly at Professor Umbridge who was now standing rather than sitting. She interrupted him with an annoyingly high-pitched: "Hem, hem." She walked around her table to stand near Dumbledore. Harry watched nervously as the other teachers' faces began to take on visible elements of surprise, their eyebrows raising and jaws dropping, the exception being Professor McGonagall, who's mouth was pinched into the tightest line Harry'd ever seen. Nobody had ever interrupted the Headmaster, _ever_. Surprisingly, said man backed away and took a seat in his large armchair, apparently interested in what the new teacher was going to say.

"Thank you, Headmaster," Umbridge's voice was high and girly, it went straight through Harry. It was safe to say that he already sported a growing dislike for her. "for those kind words of welcome. I must say, it's wonderful to be back at Hogwarts again! And to see such happy faces smiling back at me!" Looking around, nobody was smiling, Harry thought. "I am very much looking forwards to getting to know you all, I'm sure we'll all be good friends." She cleared her throat again, loudly.

"Who'd she think she is?" Harry heard Ron whisper, it seems he didn't like her much either.

"The Ministry of Magic has always had the education of young witches and wizards as a top priority. The wonderful gifts with which you were born with may come to nothing if they aren't nurtured and practised with careful guidance and instruction." Boredom began to mix with anger in Harry's mind. Her voice was annoyingly shrill and irritating, if only he could tune her out for a little while.

A small, distant scream filled his ears. Nobody else seemed to have heard it. Was it only him? Just then, it began to grow louder and louder until other people, too, began to look around for the source. The ceiling of the Hall began to twist and distort as the humanoid shapes of two distant figures became clear. They seemed to be getting closer and closer, the twisting vortex shape was directly above Dumbledore's podium. Umbridge hadn't noticed.

"… brought something new to the weighty task of governing this historic school, and-" Finally, she glances up at the ceiling after hearing the screaming. "What on Earth is going on?!" She yells, probably thinking that one of the students was playing some kind of trick. Dumbledore got to his feet and prepared to draw his wand. The other teachers were soon also on the edge of their seats, wands at the ready.

"It looks like someone's using a Portkey to get in here!" One of the Second-year students yelled from the Gryffindor table.

"Prepare yourselves!" Dumbledore warned, not directing his message to anyone in particular. Suddenly Harry saw two figures dressed in strange clothing drop dramatically from the ceiling and land harshly on the hard floor with two audible thuds. Eyes widening, Harry got to his feet, along with many other students, and attempted to push his way to the front. Ignoring the panicked voices and screams of the surrounding students, along with the nervous teachers trying to usher them away, Harry, Hermione and Ron got near to the front and saw two masculine figures lying sprawled painfully on the floor.

The younger looking one had his right arm bent at an awkward angle and blood covering his clothing, Harry noticed his eyes were only a tiny bit open; they were green like his own. The younger man (maybe teen, it was hard to tell whilst he was lying like this) soon closed them and fell limp, if it weren't for the slight movement of his chest, Harry might've thought him to be dead.

The older man was wheezing for breath with his eyes wide open in fright. His clothing was dirty and, like his brunette friend, covered in blood. He had one arm wrapped around his ribs whereas his other was fumbling with a handle sticking out from the top of a rather large silver box strapped to his hip. The black-haired man was making strange noises, almost like his was trying to speak. Harry watched, not knowing what to do as he tried to sit himself up, groaning loudly and falling back to the floor time after time, abandoning attention to the strange box and instead favouring movement.

Professor McGonagall suddenly blocked Harry's view as she ushered them all away. The heads of each of the houses rounding up students and pushing them away from the scene with their arms spread wide. Harry couldn't help but allow himself to be whisked away, back to the Gryffindor Common Room.

What the hell had just happened?

* * *

><p>Levi looked around groggily, everything was screaming in protest against the jerky movements he kept struggling to make. If only he could sit up instead of laying here looking pathetic covered in blood and ripped clothing. He could see clearly enough to notice the extremely large amount of people dressed in black robes staring at him in a huge group. He could faintly make out that someone was talking, or rather, shouting at him. Levi watched from his position laying down as the group of strangely-dressed people were pushed, shoved and ordered loudly out of what seemed to be a hall of some sort.<p>

An elderly man with spectacles and the longest beard he'd ever seen on a human knelt beside him.

"Who are you, and how did you get in?!" He ordered threateningly. Levi blinked a couple of times as the message sank in before rolling his head to look at the ceiling and pointing a shaky finger in the direction up. It was getting harder and harder to keep himself awake, pain and tiredness was trying to drug him into sleep. Swallowing past the irritating dryness in his throat, Levi unsteadily pulled his green cloak from his side and showed Dumbledore the Recon Corps symbol gracing it. "What does that mean? Are you in any form related to a Dark Wizard?"

"… W-what?" Levi croaked, beginning to pant slightly. He felt very unlike himself. He heard a faint whimper and rolled his head over to the other side, seeing Eren lying there, unconscious, seemed to trigger something inside Levi. He rolled himself onto his stomach and cursed under his breath at the horrible stabbing pain in his ribs, he pulled himself ever-so-slowly across the now stained cold floor, towards Eren. Not able to quite reach him, an alien feeling of guilt washed over him as he realised that it was indeed Eren who'd broken his fall.

"Who is that?" Dumbledore ordered an answer. Levi looked at the old man tiredly.

"S-sub…subordinate." Just speaking seemed to drink up all his effort. Suddenly, a long, wooden stick was pointed directly into his face. "Uh…?"

"Just to be sure." Dumbledore spoke cautiously, "_Stupefy!"_ He spoke so quickly that Levi didn't even have a chance to protest or question before his mind reeled and he was dragged into the uncomfortable exposedness of unconsciousness.

* * *

><p>Little did Levi know what he'd gotten into this time, if he thought this journey was going to be an easy one, he was wrong. This was going to be the biggest adventure of his lifetime, and only time will tell what happens…<p>

* * *

><p><strong>A:N Hey there! Thank you so much for all the support on this story so far! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, although I think things will start getting better next chapter.**

**Please let me know what you think!**

**Until then :)**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Thud, thud, thud, a light sigh and more thudding. That's all Eren could hear as he slowly roused back to consciousness. All noise was dreary and sounded almost like he was underwater. A dull drumming pain throbbed behind his eyes; he slowly regained feeling in each of his limbs. His parched throat was begging for a drink of water. Eren subconsciously smacked his lips together at the thought of the cool liquid. To be honest, having a drink was Eren's only reason for forcing himself so hard to wake up.

The bed beneath him was soft and comforting; it felt a lot nicer than his bed in his cell, or any other bed he'd ever slept in for that matter. More thudding, sighing, and tapping filled his ears. Able to hear a little clearer now, Eren realised that there must be someone else in the room with him, where exactly was he anyway? Eren didn't really remember much at the moment. All he knew was that he was hungry, thirst and lost. Basic really.

Forcing his lead-lidded eyes open, bright light immediately penetrated his retinas and made his green eyes burn uncomfortably. How on earth was it possible for a room to be so bright?! Trying for a second time, he hit success. As everything focussed, he found himself staring straight above at a very old and grand looking ceiling. It almost looked like the inside of the newly reformed Recon Corps base in the castle.

Before he could stop himself, or at least attempt to hold it in, Eren found himself coughing harshly into his right fist. Wait a second, his _right_ fist? He was sure that his right arm was unable to- wait, how long had he been here?! Wherever _here_ was he'd been here long enough for his regeneration powers to kick in. But what would these people say about him? Would he be dubbed as a monster here as well?

"Goodness, you're awake already?" An unfamiliar voice called out. "I wasn't expecting you to wake up for another day or two! And I must say your body seems to be healing at an incredible rate…" The woman trailed off. Wanting to see the strangers' face, Eren slowly pulled himself up into a sitting position and looked for the source of the voice. It was an old woman; she looked like a nurse or something of the sort. She had short, slightly curly grey hair and gentle blue eyes, she was watching him carefully.

"…Huh…?" Was all Eren could force out. What exactly was he supposed to say to her? _'Oh hi there! My name's Eren and the reason my body is healing so fast is because I'm part titan!' _No, that definitely _wouldn't_ be a very good idea.

"I think you should lie back down, you're still injured." The nurse began walking closer to him; Eren immediately tensed up, fight or flight he supposed. "Calm down! I'm not going to do anything to you!" She scolded.

"G-get away from me!" The green-eyed teen bit out. He hoped he'd sounded menacing.

"Oh, right. You don't know anything do you?" She chuckled, "Well, I'm the head nurse here at the school. You can call me Madame Pomfrey. I'm going to go and get the Headmaster now; he surely wants to have a quick word with you. I mean, you seem lively enough to answer." And with that, the small nurse turned on her heel and left the large room to find the 'Headmaster' whoever that was.

Eren waited until she was out of his sight before he attempted to move again. Pulling his legs up to his chest, he scooted around and gently pressed his bare feet to the cold ground. As he did so, Eren noticed there was a bed quite close to him, peering into it, he saw Levi. From what he could see, his captain didn't look to be in the best of shape. The older man had a thin bandage around his head; it was completely spotless save for the tiny pinpricks of red staining through the material around his temple. He looked quite pale and vulnerable as well. It was strange seeing Levi like this.

Eren almost felt sorry for him, he couldn't heal as fast as he could. But then again, Levi hated being weak and despised people being sorry for him, so Eren (as though Levi could read his thoughts through unconsciousness) quickly obliterated the thought. Approaching the neat bedside, he saw that Levi was wearing what looked like a one of his normal white, button-up shirts, but it didn't quite look like his. The material didn't look right…

"What are you doing out of bed?!" A high pitched voice aimed at him almost made him jump of his skin. It was that Madame _Puffy_ or whatever the heck her name was. Her voice was seriously annoying Eren, he didn't like all this attention, all this looking down on him, even if he was an injured imposter. Turning to face her, Eren gave his best scowl. Standing beside the nurse was an elderly-looking man. He wore old robes and had a beard so long that he could tuck it into his belt if he tried, was he the Headmaster of this place?

"Why don't you take a seat back down on your bed so that we can talk." Eren defiantly stayed standing. There was no way that he was going to be taking orders from that old fart, Eren decided rather irrespectively. "Well, I suppose you can stand if you really must." Eren continued to stare him down, he had no idea what was going to happen so he must be ready for anything.

"I'll leave you to it, Headmaster." Madame Pomfrey nodded in acknowledgement before leaving the area to go and attend to business else ware, she knew that Dumbledore wouldn't want to have an audience. Said man watched as she left.

"Well?" Spoke Eren, still standing tautly besides Levi's bedside.

"Now, now, there's no need to be hasty, so you can calm down, young man." Dumbledore smiled warmly. "Why don't we start with introductions? My name is Albus Dumbledore; I am the Headmaster of Hogwarts. Which is the school we are both currently situated in."

"H-Hogwarts?!" Eren seemed to be struggling to keep his composure at the ridiculous name. "What sort of a name is that?!"

"Say, have you never heard of our school before?"

"No, I think I'd know if I'd heard of such a school." The teen rubbed at one of his eyes for a moment before he suddenly tensed even further and completely paused. "Wait… No, it can't be… Am I? No, that's ridiculous… But maybe…"

"Excuse me, but what are you-"

"What wall are we in?" Eren cut the elderly man off with a panic laced question. When all that was returned was a confused face, Eren began shouting. "I said 'what Wall are we in?'. Answer me! I need to know!"

"Wall? Now what do you mean by _wall_?" Dumbledore looked genuinely puzzled now, Eren even more so.

"Well then… Tell me- Tell me what the name of this area or whatever is!" Eren looked like he was about to leap at the Professor and strangle him just to get the answers he needed out of him, Eren wasn't scared of higher-ups.

"Hm, well, I suppose I can tell you the exact location to be precise. We are on the planet of Earth, upon the European continent, inside the United Kingdom and finally residing in the beautiful country of Scotland which is where we find ourselves inside Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. There, does this answer your questions, young man?"

"What?! Where the hell am I and… and _witchcraft and wizardry_?! What the _hell_?!"

"I believe I just tol-"

"Don't get all smart-ass with me, old man!" Eren snapped as he pushed his hands through his hair, seemingly trying to pull it out. Suddenly, his knees buckled and he felt himself hit the floor, he pushed his back against Levi's bed. Mixed emotions swirled around inside his head, should he be happy, should be sad, angry, frustrated, overjoyed? A pulsing headache settled itself behind Eren's eyes once again. "I'm out, I'm out, I'm finally out! I'm outside the walls, far outside the walls, what now? But I can't be… But I _am_! Haha, I'm out! _We're_ out!"

"Are you feeling alright, young man?" Dumbledore asked, not looking at all fazed by what was going on. He'd been dealing with children at Hogwarts for many, many years now and had learned to keep his composure.

"Aright?! _Alright?!_" Eren bowed his head down and tangled his fingers in his brunette locks, ignoring the sharp little pains it pinpricked over his scalp. "…I don't know." He almost whispered, having calmed down from his sudden outburst.

"Well then," Dumbledore took a seat on Eren's bed, looking down at its current owner who was still sitting hunched up on the floor. "Let's start again, from the introduction. What is your name?"

"Eren Jaegar." He answered simply.

"And how old are you?"

"Sixteen." Another basic answer.

"Where are you from, Eren?" Dumbledore asked, to Eren, he looked quite interested in his life, and those were subjects he didn't want to delve into whilst talking to a complete stranger.

"Shiganshina District, the southern area of the outermost Wall. Look I don't know how any of this is helping."

"Well. I think I hold at least some of the answers you are looking for. Eren, listen to me carefully. Where you are from, was the year something like… oh what was it? Ah yes, around 850 to 852?" Dumbledore asked in a much more serious manner than before. Eren quickly looked up and locked his gaze with the headmasters'.

"Yeah. Why?" Eren asked.

"Before you ended up here, do you remember what happened? Do you remember how you got here?"

"This giant, Aberrant, titan tried to eat me and Levi, we tried to outrun it but couldn't, it took down three other titans before starting on us, though. It managed to grab both of us and we almost died. But then I grabbed onto this shiny metal thing stuck around one of its teeth, I grabbed a hold of it and then everything started to blur and stuff. Then, I woke up here." Eren recalled, not at all looking happy about having to give away information like that.

"Hm, I had no idea that humans resided within that dimension." He mumbled.

"What?! You did this?!" Eren exclaimed loudly, all of this was just too much to take in.

"I'm afraid so. I cannot tell you anymore than the fact I sent a seemingly mutated troll over to where you are from. We couldn't get rid of it, it continued to return, so I activated a Portkey and sent it someplace else, not thinking that I'd have to activate a Portkey requiring that much magic energy again. It seems that my decision was wrong."

"Send me and Levi back, old man!"

"I wish it were that simple, Eren. But I don't really have much knowledge of what _really_ happened. Therefore, I think you are going to have to stay here, hidden away safely inside Hogwarts until I know exactly what happened and I can safely return you and your friend back home." Dumbledore stood up and brushed himself off. "I'll be going now. Please ask a member of staff to escort you to my office if you wish to speak with me. I will announce to everyone our circumstances tomorrow during dinner."

"What? Wait!" Eren called after him, he still had so many questions bombarding his brain and had absolutely no idea what was going on. The one thing continuously ringing in his head, though, was the fact that he was out and away from the walls, the one thing that he and Armin had always _dreamed_ of.

"My, that took a while didn't it?" It was Madame Pomfrey again. Only this time, she'd brought a small trolley over. "I expect you're hungry. Now that Dumbledore had confirmed that you aren't a threat, he's allowed me to feed you at long last." She shook her head and propped some cushions up on the bed. "Come on, sit up here and eat."

"Yes, ma'am." Eren had no idea why he was showing her respect, but the strange foods before him looked delicious, he was almost attempted to awaken Levi so that he, too, could try some. However, on the other hand, Eren decided that he'd had more than enough near-death-experiences for now and instead allowed him to sleep for as long as he needed.

Returning his full attention to the trolley, Eren found the appetite that he'd thought he'd lost in the earlier confusion.

* * *

><p>"Eren." A familiar, sharp voice cut through the thin veil of darkness like a blade. It was night time and a single, dimming candle left by Madame Pomfrey was all that allowed one to see the other. "Are you awake?"<p>

"Levi! You're awake!" Eren sat up in his bed, looking over to his commander.

"Tch. Address me more formally, brat." Levi practically growled out, it seemed he was back to normal again. Eren immediately corrected his mistake.

"Captain Levi, sir, I'm glad you're finally woken up!"

"Where are we?" His tone of voice ordered an answer. Eren didn't really know what to say.

"Apparently we're in a school. The headmaster came by to talk to me. He said that we're in the continent of Europe, the United Kingdom and the country of Scotland. I have no idea where any of it is, but we're definitely outside the walls now, sir." Eren recalled the information that Professor Dumbledore had willingly given him.

"Outside the walls? Tch, how did we end up here? What did you do, brat?"

"I didn't do anything, sir! The headmaster said that it was something _he_ did." Eren quickly threw out his answer in self-defence.

"Headmaster, huh? I guess I'll have to pay him a visit…" Levi began to make a move to get out of bed when he suddenly noticed that he wasn't wearing his own clothes. "Eren. Where are my clothes? These are disgusting." He looked down at the white shirt and black trousers he was wearing.

"Oh, those, I- I don't actually know. The nurse here told me that we're wearing student uniform so that we fit in more. She said that their ministry or something was here, so we needed to not stand out." Eren explained, not exactly happy with his white shirt and black trousers either.

"Where is the nurse? I want my clothes back!" Levi argued, "I'm thirty-five and should not be wearing a student uniform!" Eren was about to say something when Levi cut him off, "Don't you _dare_ mock my height!" Levi hissed. That was more than enough to rid Eren of that thought.

"Sorry, sir."

"Shut up, brat. I'm going to sleep, don't bother me. I have enough to deal with right now without being disturbed, got it?" Snapped Levi, lying back down. His ribs weren't hurting enough to hinder his movement anymore, was this how Eren felt as he healed?

"One more thing, Captain Levi, sir." Eren added a little more respect to his tone just this once to lesson his chances of Levi going mad at him for 'disturbing' him.

"What is it, brat? You scared or something?" He spoke in a mocking voice, Eren's eyebrows furrowed together as he protested.

"No! I was just going to say that tomorrow; the headmaster is announcing to the entire school that we're here. We might have to go with him. That's all."

"Right. Now leave me alone." Eren bit down his frustration. He knew that being like this was Levi's way of dealing with things. The older man was probably thinking similar things to Eren right now; he just didn't want to say anything.

Eren attempted to relax, but it was to no avail, and awaited tomorrow. Because tomorrow, he was going to be exposed to the students and teachers here, they'd all know about him. As if he didn't already have more than enough to deal with. Sighing, Eren closed his eyes and fell into an uneasy sleep.

* * *

><p><strong>Hi, thank you again for all the support so far! I know it must be annoying having my thanks written at the end of each chapter but I really can't thank you enough.<strong>

**By the way, I have aged Eren and Levi up by a year, so only slightly, because the events here take place after the Shingeki No Kyojin anime series so far.**

**Also, please let me know what you think of my cover art, I drew it myself!**

**Let me know what you thought of this chapter, thanks! :)**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

The atmosphere at Hogwarts was a tense one. For starters, Professor Dumbledore had unexpectedly called for a meeting that all students and staff must attend, and second, nobody knew what it was about. Although Harry was pretty sure that the words spoken were going to be somehow linked to the outlandish occurrences of a couple days ago.

Walking through the candlelit corridors beside his friends, Ron and Hermione, Harry found himself rather drawn to the event. Who were those people? How did they get in? Maybe all his questions would be answered, maybe they wouldn't - who knew? The whole way to the Great Hall, other students whispered amongst themselves quietly coming up with their own theories as to what was going on. Many of the harsh voices were muttering Umbridge's name for some reason.

After what felt like an absolute eternity, Harry found himself striding inside the Hall. In contrary to the usual welcoming tables, packed with all kinds of foods, drinks and cutlery, the tables were instead bare and appeared dull. Even the room itself looked a little overcast, there seemed to be a very serious look about it all.

Taking a seat near the front of the Hall, on the Gryffindor table, Harry sat down and silently awaited the headmaster. He didn't really have to wait very long. Once everyone was seated, the old wizard emerged and went to take his place before his usual podium, the exact same place as he was in before all the previous chaos took place. He looked around to be sure that all the students and staff were accounted for and that almost every single place was taken before he started to speak.

"Welcome," he began, gripping the sides of the golden podium, "to the assembly. Now, rather than beat around the bush, as some might say, I think I'll get right into what must be said. Please pay attention as it is something that may well affect all of you in this very room, both students and staff. I presume that you all remember the events that occurred on your first day back, when the two people seemingly fell from the ceiling and interrupted our announcements? Well I have brought us all together for reasons surrounding those mysterious people. I cannot share much information surrounding them but I can tell you this, they are not from around here so please keep that in mind."

"Where do you think they're from then?" Ron whispered to Hermione, who was seated beside him, Harry didn't even acknowledge the fact that Ron'd spoke; instead he kept his attention purely on Dumbledore.

"Any minute now, our guests will be arriving here; they are currently on their way from the Hospital Wing accompanied by Madame Pomfrey. Please treat them with respect, their names are Eren and Levi, both will be staying here in our school. I will inform you all further when they arrive, they both deserve to know exactly what is being said."

* * *

><p>Eren was glad to finally get out of that place; he hated being confined to bed. He didn't understand why Madame Pomfrey had made him stay there anyway, he was more than capable of movement, and he'd healed himself within the first few hours of being there. Looking over at Levi, Eren also noticed that his leader didn't seem to be in pain anymore; surely it would take longer than it had to heal broken ribs? They must have pretty effective medical training here or something of the sort.<p>

The walk from the Hospital Wing to the Great Hall reminded Eren a lot of the walk from his cell to his hearing some time ago, the atmosphere and surroundings were similar - except this time he didn't have Hanji jabbering on down his ear the whole time. Instead, he and Levi were being led by Madame Pomfrey, and she didn't really do much talking.

Looking around at the stone walls, Eren couldn't help but wonder how long a place like this had been around for, and how big it really was. His curious eyes scanned all the details around him as they passed through. After a while they found themselves standing before a hefty set of timeworn double doors.

"Right we are then, here we go." Madame Pomfrey announced as they stopped walking to stand before their destination.

"This is the Great Hall?" Levi asked, looking towards the doors, his face unreadable.

"Yes, you just need to walk right in there and go stand with the headmaster. I'll walk you up as I have to attend the assembly too. Alright?" The small nurse braced her aged hands upon the smooth wood of each of the doors before giving them a hefty push. The doors both began to open and suddenly Eren could see nothing but students. It almost made him feel a little odd as he and Levi had both resorted back to wearing their own clothing after a long and tiring 'discussion' with Madame Pomfrey. Of course they had to leave their weapons and 3DMG behind, much to their dismay. But Eren was sure that nobody would dare touch them whilst their owners weren't present, though, not after Levi's threats.

Pulling on a serious face, Eren and Levi both stared straight ahead as they made their way through the centre of the hall walking behind Madame Pomfrey. Eren tried to ignore the obvious whispers and gasps, he could feel hundreds of pairs of eyes burning into him - but this wasn't the first time he'd experienced the feeling. Nevertheless a nervous feeling still lodged itself into Eren's stomach, he almost felt sick. Giving in to the overpowering urge, Eren looked around the room as he walked, hundreds of students all dressed in the same black uniform stared at him, each organised onto one of four tables. He glanced up at the ceiling and saw grey clouds above him, it confused him to no end, how the hell did they do that? Was there in fact no ceiling at all? Was he really looking at the sky or was this all some clever illusion?

Once they reached Dumbledore, they recieved warm smiles and were motioned to stand near him. Madame Pomfrey walked past them to sit at what seemed to be the staff table. Eren looked out into the sea of faces, most were confused, a couple were smirking, a platinum blond kid on the furthest table was sneering at them - his eyes were almost as cold as Levi's.

"And now it is time to give our guests, Eren and Levi, a proper welcoming to Hogwarts. Both are here from a foreign school, they specialised in certain magical creatures and are now here to study and explore. Please respect their wishes and give them space, I do not want them being swarmed when they have only just arrived."

Eren saw Levi cringe slightly at the lie being told, he wasn't happy with this at all. After pausing to breathe and glance around, Dumbledore continued. "Eren will attend some classes of his choice to get a feel for how Hogwarts works; Levi will also be permitted to enter lessons as he was previously a teacher at the school they both came from. I do believe that this is all the information you need to know for now, so please, enjoy this breakfast as a treat for your patience!" As Dumbledore finished speaking, he brought his wand out and with a flick of his wrist; plates and dishes, cutlery and food magically presented itself upon the once bare tables.

"What the…" Eren mumbled under his breath, his eyes widened comically at the display. All attention was briefly lifted from the strangers as they caught sight of the food before them; many of the pupils appeared to have stopped listening completely in favour of the food.

"Please, feel free to join any table you'd like and be sure to enjoy a wonderful breakfast. Now, I must be going to my office as I have some business to attend to. Please ask one of the students to escort you to my office when breakfast is over. That is all." Then, with another smile and a gentle pat on the shoulder each, the elderly wizard quickly made his way out of the Hall, his robes billowing slightly at his feet as he walked.

Eren and Levi looked at each other for a moment before scanning their eyes around the hall for a seat. Many of the places were taken, and neither of them really wanted to sit in the middle of a rowdy bunch of excitable students. So instead, they opted for the nearest seat to them and that so happened to be at the end of a table coated in friendly warmth of red and gold. Eren noticed a black haired boy with round glasses watching them closely as they advanced towards the table.

"Hey, um, could we sit here?" Asked Eren, he wasn't really asking anyone in particular so he just gestured with his hand. Without waiting for an answer, Levi threw himself down onto the seat, opposite the one Eren was standing at, and found himself beside a red haired boy stuffing his mouth with bacon. Eren copied his leaders' actions and sat down too, a little more gently that Levi had, next to the glasses-clad boy.

"Bloody 'ell!" The red head gasped as he dropped a handful of bacon back onto his plate and clutched his chest in fright. He turned to look over at the stranger who'd taken the seat beside him and was confronted with a pair of glaring eyes. Eren watched as Levi turned away and shuffled a little further away from the greasy handed boy.

Looking down at the food, Eren seemed reluctant to try any. He'd never seen half of the stuff that was there, and if he had it was considered a luxury inside the walls. Besides, it _had _just appeared out of nowhere, was this stuff even safe to eat? Eren continued to stare at it.

"It's not poisoned you know, you can try some." The dark haired boy sitting next to him spoke up. "I'm Harry by the way, Harry Potter."

"Oh, I'm Eren. Um, sorry but what is this stuff?" Eren asked cautiously, he was puzzled by the expecting look on Harry's face; it was almost like he was expecting him to say something. But, of course, Eren had no idea why.

"Haven't you ever seen this cereal before? Or bacon?" Harry questioned disbelievingly, leaving behind his supposing face.

"Harry, you sound so disrespectful when you say it like that!" A bushy haired girl with brown eyes spoke up from her place next to the red haired boy. Harry muttered a short 'sorry' as his friend scolded him. "My name's Hermione, and this pig stuffing his face is Ron." She stretched her arm across the table, Eren awkwardly shook her hand.

"Well, where I'm from, we just have… basic things. Like porridge I guess." Eren explained, still looking at the assortment before him.

"Doesn't that get boring?" Ron asked after he swallowed another mouthful of food.

"We don't really get much of a choice."

"Then eat this!" Ron pushed the deep bowl filled with strips of bacon towards him. Slowly moving his hand towards the offering, Eren took a single strip of the meat and cautiously lifted it to his mouth. The taste instantly rushed over his tongue. It tasted amazing!

"Captain Levi, sir, you have to try this!"

"I don't want any, besides; God knows how many people have had their filthy hands in that bowl." Levi directed a glare in Ron's direction before propping his arms up on the table and looking around with just his eyes. He locked his fingers over and rested his lower face behind them, his nose just touching the bridge his fingers made. This was a position Eren had seen him take up so many times before.

"Captain?" Hermione furrowed her eyebrows as she leaned around Ron, "Captain of what? Aren't you a teacher?"

"Yes." Levi growled he wasn't at all happy with his new façade. Munching on a bit of bacon, Eren 'corrected' himself.

"Right, sorry _Professor_ Levi, sir." Eren didn't mean it to humiliate Levi, but all the same he got a sharp kick in the shin, discreetly given from Levi under the table. Eren nearly choked on his food as he tried not to make any noise. It was safe to say, Levi was _not_ happy.

* * *

><p>Many bacon strips and a few reluctantly eaten pieces of toast later, breakfast was over. A large proportion of the students had already left to prepare for their first lesson of the day; Hermione was quite constantly reminding them that they needed to get going soon.<p>

"We'll go in a minute, 'Mione!" Ron stressed, he didn't want to get up just yet. Eren and Levi also mentally reminded themselves that they needed to go see Dumbledore before they did anything else.

"C'mon Ron, Hermione's right! We need to get going soon." Harry agreed with his friend. Levi stood from his seat and dusted his dark-emerald coloured Recon Corps cloak off before dusting the rest of himself with his hands. Eren was soon to follow. Before Harry could stand up to leave, Eren spoke up.

"Harry, could you show us the way to the Headmasters' office before you go to lesson?"

"Erm, yeah, sure. We can go now if you want." Answered Harry, "You coming, Ron?"

"Yeah, I've got nothing better to do."

"I guess I'll come along too then, I've already got my things organized back in my dorm." Hermione sighed, standing up from her seat along with Ron and Harry. The five of them began making their way out of the Great Hall. Almost like a feeling of Déjà vu, many of the remaining students turned to stare again, most commenting on who was with them. It seemed that Harry and his friends weren't the most popular people around.

Before they got to the exit, the platinum blond kid who was giving those glares earlier blocked their path. He scowled at Harry before moving onto Eren and Levi.

"I don't know what you're doing with these pathetic freaks. My name's Malfoy, Draco Malfoy, I-"

"Get out of my way, kid. I don't care who the hell you are." Levi snapped harshly, Draco's mouth began to open and close as all sound deserted him. It then snapped shut as his face morphed into disgust.

"I'll be telling father about this!" Malfoy yelled at them at Levi pushed past him. As they entered the bustling corridor, Eren watched as his Captain had to casually slip back behind Harry, Ron and Hermione upon realising that he didn't know his way around the castle. Especially when it was filled with students.

"Who was that?" Eren asked Harry, who was leading the way. Harry turned his head slightly as he answered.

"Nobody that you need to worry about, just stay away from Malfoy, his father's in close contact with the Ministry. And you don't want to mix with them, trust me." Harry replied. Eren hummed in response, to him, that Draco kid just looked like a spoiled brat. After a few minutes of silent walking, Ron suddenly couldn't keep quiet any more.

"Aren't those uncomfortable?" He asked Eren and Levi. Both were confused by the sudden question.

"What?" Levi asked.

"All those straps I mean, they look uncomfortable. What are they for anyway?"

"Nothing you need to worry about."

"Oh. Okay then." Ron awkwardly lapsed back into silence, he could already tell that it was best to wallow in confusion than ask or argue with Levi. A pregnant pause of silence followed before it was broken once again. Only this time, it was a welcome voice, Dumbledore's.

"There you are!" He greeted, "I was beginning to think that you'd forgotten to come to me!"

"We were just on our way, Headmaster." Eren supplied respectfully, he wasn't really sure how to address or talk to this man. Dumbledore smiled,

"I was just on my way to fetch you personally, but now it seems that won't be necessary." He then sighed as he saw who their escorts were, "I should have known it would be you three. Off to lesson now though, you don't want to ruin your attendance before you even finish your first week now, do you?"

"Okay, Professor. We'll be going now." Hermione answered, "C'mon." She whispered to her friends who looked like they were about to ask if they could go with Eren and Levi. Once the Golden Trio had begun making their way towards the Gryffindor Common Room to pick up their bags, Dumbledore turned to face his visitors.

"Now then, let's get going. We have some things to discuss."

* * *

><p>Professor Dumbledore's office was, in many ways, like a small old library. Stacks and stacks of ancient looking books and documents were piled in random places on the floor; well over a hundred were organized onto towering bookshelves. Around the room and above the shelves, portraits and paintings were lining the walls; each one looked like it contained its own piece of history.<p>

The owner of the office was seated in a large, well-used armchair behind a much disorganized desk. It seemed that the books had invaded that space too. Eren and Levi were currently seated in comfortable chairs that had been set out for them before they got there. They were on the opposite side of the desk.

"First things first, I've been told to inform you both that your weaponry and 'gear' are currently being taken to the Gryffindor Boys' dorms, which is the house myself and Madame Pomfrey presume that you'll both be best suited to. I apologise for any inconvenience but for the time being you are both going to have to sleep in the dormitories. Once we have a spare room sorted out for you, you can opt to reside there." The professor explained.

"Isn't Gryffindor the house that Harry, Ron and Hermione are in?" Eren asked as he was sure that he remembered them saying something about Gryffindor.

"Yes, that is correct. All three of them were sorted into that house in their first year. You should be quite alright in Gryffindor. However, if there happens to be any problems, please do not hesitate to contact me. Now, before I get into any more details, I must give you both these." Dumbledore fumbled with the lock to one of the drawers running down the inside of his desk before opening it and pulling two shiny looking things out.

"What are those?" Eren questioned as the professor held each object up in a different hand. He was holding what looked like two necklaces. Each had a shiny silver chain and held a small, red square of what looked like a crystal of some sort in a decorative silver frame. The jewlery didn't look like anything that Eren had ever seen someone wear before.

"I must ask you both to wear one of these at all times whilst inside Hogwarts or any other magical residence." Dumbledore spoke as he handed the jewellery over; Eren was amazed at how light it was. Levi, of course, was turning his nose up at the idea of wearing what could potentially be a women's accessory. "This is infused with magic, it will allow you to see all of the wonders that we magical folk see as well as take the pressure that magic can cause away from your bodies."

"Magic isn't real. It's simply an illusion. So why should I have to wear this rubbish?" Levi held the necklace up as though it was poisoned.

"I'm sorry to disagree Mister Levi, but magic is most definitely real. How on earth could you explain how all that food appeared in the Great Hall earlier on?"

"An illusion. Prove to me that magic is real." Levi ordered. Rather than take offense, Dumbledore simply drew his wand and pointed it at the necklace before softly speaking,

"_Wingardium Leviosa._" And with that, the necklace floated high up into the air before gently coming back down and dropping itself over Levi's head and resting around his neck. "That, my friend, was magic."

"But how…" Eren butted it in with his own gasp of amazement. "How do you _do_ that?"

"Magic. Some folk are born with it, some are born without. I'm afraid, being a muggle, which is the non-magical folk; you won't be able to perform it. Not even with these bewitched necklaces. Now please, put yours on and you'll instantly feel the difference." Dumbledore urged. Eren quickly obeyed.

As soon as the red jewel came to rest against his chest he felt an intense feeling of calm wash over him, it was almost unreal. Once the unusual calm feeling went away, he found himself feeling a lot more like himself, it was as though he could think clearly again.

"I'm sorry for the way I spoke to you yesterday, Professor." Eren suddenly felt the need to apologize as he felt slightly guilty for his previous actions. Dumbledore raised one wrinkled hand to stop him.

"There's no need to apologize, that's just what I get for coming to talk to you when you have only just awaken from unconsciousness. Not to mention the stress your body was probably under from all the magic energy, I suppose Poppy used magic to attempt to heal you both too… Anyways, do not worry about it, these necklaces should help with the magical hassle now though, it's the least I can do after what has happened."

"What do you mean?" Levi suddenly asked, Eren mentally hit himself, he'd completely forgotten to fully explain what was going on!

"Ah, you were still unconscious when I explained this to Eren. You see, the reason you and Eren are here, is a result of a foolish mistake I made. It's my fault that this happened."

* * *

><p><strong>Hello there, I'm very sorry for the long wait for this chapter, but at long last I've updated. Thank you for all the reviews last chapter, they really helped me out a lot! It's nice seeing that people like the story. So thank you for that!<strong>

**Also, next chapter, I think I'll have Eren and Levi attending their first lesson at Hogwarts, just to get a feel for what it's like, please let me know if there's a specific lesson you'd like to see them in! **

**Thanks again, and I will be responding to as many reviews as I can (if I get any) this time around. I apologise for not responding previously, I just didn't get the chance, sorry!**

**See you next time! :)**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

"This is all your fault? _What_ is all your fault?" Levi leaned forwards slightly in his seat, seemingly a lot more interested in the conversation than he had previously been.

"Well… I'm not sure exactly how to explain this, but, first of all. Do you remember how exactly you got here?" Dumbledore asked, it almost sounded like he was trying to avoid the inevitable. Eren wasn't sure exactly how all this was going to turn out, but he hoped that Levi didn't do anything rash.

"Of course I remember. But how could _you _have anything to do with _that_?"

"That's the thing, Levi, the monster that attempted to devour you was sent to your world by me." The professor looked as though he was going to follow through with an explanation, but of course Levi didn't give him chance, not after what he'd just heard.

"Why the hell did you send the damn thing to us?!"

"I assure you, I, and the other staff involved in the operation, had absolutely no idea that people still resided within the area you're from. If we had known, we definitely wouldn't have sent the number of beasts we did over to where you're from. I am truly sorry for any problems we may have caused but they were threatening our school and magic didn't affect them in any way-"

"So that makes it all okay, doesn't it?! A little _sorry_ makes up for the destruction and tragedy they've caused!" Levi snapped. Eren had never seen his leader lose it like this. But on a similar note, Eren could also feel anger bubbling up inside of him. If it wasn't for this man's careless mistake, his mother may still be alive, the walls needn't have been built, and human kind could live in _peace_.

"Please, calm down, I'm sure if we collaborate we may be able to find a solution!" Dumbledore argued, he clearly had no idea how much damage the titans had caused. "Surely they can't have caused that much damage, they aren't intelligent enough. Besides, the world is a large place, and less than thirty have been sent over in the past twenty years." At that, Levi lost control.

Within the blink of an eye, he'd had bolted up from his seat and had banged both of his hands down onto Dumbledore's desk. The loud slamming noise produced from the harsh contact of flesh against wood seemed to fill the room with tenseness even before the actions that caused the noise were seen.

"Do you even know what those '_beasts' _are capable of!? Those sadistic bastards kill for the fun of it! Countless soldiers, countless comrades, countless friends and family members are all dead because of some stupid mistake you made in your half-assed attempt to get rid of the titan's!" Levi snarled, his cold eyes gleaming in hatred. Dumbledore visibly paled, it looked like he hadn't known what they were capable of at all. "Didn't it ever occur to you to _check_ to see if people were living in the damn area you were dumping your problems on?!" Fuming with anger, Levi's breaths became harsh as he threw himself back down into his chair and looked at the professor with utmost disgust. Whether or not he regretted losing his temper quite like that, it had sure let Dumbledore in on the horrifying severity of the situation.

"I… I didn't know it was quite _that_ bad." He put his head in his hands as he thought. It was Eren's turn to jump in now; he didn't care how guilty he made Dumbledore feel.

"Professor, humanity is on the brink of extinction! You haven't seen what they can do! And while less than thirty may seem like a small number to you, just one titan could kill more than fifty people within a day! They don't have to eat, or drink to survive!" Eren stressed, Dumbledore seemed to have had enough.

"I will gather as much information on the titan's as I can, I will try anything in my power to help you and your world out. Please, I can't express just how sorry I am for the catastrophic events that have taken place, I can only imagine the horrors you both must've faced…"

"If that's all, we'll be going now." Levi stated, presumably back to sustaining an emotionless face and keeping himself in check. "Eren, let's go."

"Yes, sir." Eren respectfully followed the order, feeling a little riled up after that conversation.

"Wait a second!" Dumbledore spoke up, he was holding up a roll of parchment. "Take this; you'll need it to find your way around. Harry is in this classroom," he unrolled the parchment and pointed to a large room seemingly in the lower levels of the school, "If you wish to attend a lesson."

"What class is it?" Asked Eren as he took the map of the school, Dumbledore forced a smile.

"Potions, with Professor Severus Snape, potions doesn't contain that much magical influence, other than the ingredients, so you should both be fine. That is if you are going to attend."

"We'll go. It's not like we have anything better to do, _professor_." Levi pulled the map from Eren's hands and looked it over himself; he glared at Dumbledore before finally making his way towards the exit.

"Oh, and be warned, the stairs move!"

* * *

><p>"Let me take a look at it, sir," Eren gestured towards the map his superior was currently trying to decipher. With a "Tch" of disapproval, Levi looked up from the thin parchment roll and at the deserted hallway again. Muttering inaudible things under his breath as he went. Neither of them knew how much time had passed before they eventually found the classroom they were looking for, the school was too damn big for its own good!<p>

"It looks like this is it." Levi stated bluntly. The door before them was old and appeared slightly damp, maybe even mouldy. There was a rather peculiar smell wafting from the room and Eren could faintly hear a voice droning on. Knocking once, Levi pushed the door open.

As they walked inside, all eyes turned to watch them, what was it with students and staring at this school? The classroom was dark and was illuminated by candles; it was quickly turning rather eerie with the current silence. It reminded Eren a lot of his prison cell for there were no windows. The professor, Snape Dumbledore had said, began walking towards them. His black robes billowed out behind him as he walked, Levi didn't look at all impressed, although, he wasn't particularly in a good mood to start with.

"Can I help you?" Snape asked coldly, his voice echoing slightly. Arms crossed, Levi watched him closely.

"We were sent by Professor Dumbledore… Sir." Eren added the last word as an afterthought; he presumed that was how to address the teachers.

"You two must be the… mysterious strangers that showed up on the first night." After stating what had basically become common knowledge around the school, Snape continued, "Very well. Please, take a seat." Rather than spoken with politeness, the Potions Professor seemed to be speaking in a tone that could potentially class as rude. From what Eren could see Snape already seemed to be sporting a slight dislike for them. It wouldn't be the first time either Eren or Levi had been a situation like this though.

Scanning around the classroom, the only seats that were available seemed to be near the front of the class, near a group of kids wearing uniform that only appeared to consist of the colours black and dark green. Amongst them was the ever stuck up and annoying Draco Malfoy. Or at least that's what Eren cut him out to be.

Walking up to the front of the class, Eren caught sight of the strange text books that the students were taking notes from. They were overly thick and contained knowledge on different types of potions and ingredients. It all looked very confusing.

"You'll be needing these." The professor flicked what looked like a stick and two of the text books floated down the middle of the aisle, where the tables parted, and landed with a soft pat on their wooden desks. Sitting down, Eren marvelled at what he had just seen, looking the book over from different angles to see if he could find something that could have made it move like that. The other students took absolutely no notice of what had just happened, as though flying books was a regular thing. Maybe they were at this weird school.

"What a load of crap," Levi muttered disdainfully, flicking through the battered and slightly burnt pages of the textbook. Eren mentally agreed with what Levi thought of it all, although, he had to admit, it was a little interesting, it was also pointless to learn. When was Eren ever going to need to know how many Mandrake roots to put in a Pepperup Potion?

"Excuse me, _Professor,_ but what did you just say? Care to repeat?" Snape glared at Levi from his place in front of their desks, Eren had never even noticed him standing there. He gave the impression that he was expecting Levi to be unnerved by him or at least be respectful and keep quiet during the lesson. Of course that wasn't going to happen.

"I _said_ that this is an utter load of crap." Levi glared back. He snapped the textbook shut and inwardly winced at the dust that came off it, he didn't let it show on his face. Snape leaned his hands onto the desk as the two of them stared straight into the others' eyes. It was almost like they were having a silent war. A select few students bravely giggled at the sight; presumably the fact that another 'teacher' was standing up to the Potion's Professor.

Severus narrowed his eyes, "I would appreciate it if you didn't use such language in my classroom."

"We basically rank the same, we're both professors, therefore I don't need to take orders from someone such as yourself." Replied Levi, Snape seemed to be thinking over what to say next. Then, rather than speak, he glowered at the disrespectful stranger. After a few tense moments Snape moved away to continue teaching his lesson.

* * *

><p>"Bloody hell," Ron gawked in respect, "That Professor Levi has some nerves! He scares me more than Snape does!" Harry rolled his eyes at his friend's comment.<p>

"Ron, I'd get back to work if I were you!" Hermione urged from her seat to the side of Harry and Ron's.

"And why's that?" Hermione was about to reply when she quickly looked back at her own notes, a sinking feeling in Ron's stomach gave everything away.

"Yes… Why _should_ you get back to work, Weasley?" A rough hand shoved his head down to look at his text book, Ron almost yelped. "Five points from Gryffindor!" And with that he walked away. Ron scowled at the professors' back as he rubbed the back of his head. He picked up his quill and was about to continue writing when Snape's unfriendly voice suddenly rang out again.

"Why exactly aren't you doing any work?" He'd stopped behind Eren's table. Ron peered around the other students until he got a good view of what was going on. Elbowing Harry in the ribs, Ron whispered,

"Harry look! Snape's moved on to Eren now. D'you think he's like Levi?"

"I dunno. What was Eren doing?" Harry replied, also straining to get a good view of what was happening. Anything would be more entertaining than making useless notes from a textbook. Ron shrugged. From what he could see, Eren was sitting with the side of his right hand pressed against his lips, his elbow resting on the table. When Snape snapped him out of whatever he was thinking about, Eren opened his mouth to say something back. Before he could say a word in defence, Snape made a move to push his head down to look at the textbook, the same way he had Ron. The latter was confused, Snape only really did that to him and Harry, why was he doing it to Eren? It's not like he was in Gryffindor or anything.

Pushing his thoughts away and concentrating on what was happening at the front of the class, Ron watched in surprise as Levi's face actually showed a flash of emotion. His eyes widened slightly as he pulled Eren's hand away from his mouth before he could accidently bite it.

"Why did Levi do that?" Harry asked as he sat back down properly in his seat, Ron shook his head in thought.

"Maybe he just didn't want him to hurt himself?" The red-head's response was more of a question in itself than an answer.

"He didn't look like he was doing it to stop him hurting himself. I don't know whether it's just me but did Levi look… scared for a moment?" Ron knew what Harry meant. Looking at Levi now, he was back to his emotionless cover, but, something seemed off with them. Even Eren looked like he was sighing or something when Levi said something rude to make Snape leave them alone. Ron leaned back in his chair. Maybe he and Harry were just over thinking it all; they had a tendency to do that.

* * *

><p>"Be more careful of where he you put your hands, brat!" Levi snapped in a whispered voice so that none of the other students would overhear. Eren turned to look at his captain.<p>

"I'm sorry, sir, I wasn't thinking." He muttered. Levi sighed, _that_ could've been disastrous. Even though the chances of Eren transforming were very slim, that wasn't a risk he was willing to take. Eren could only turn into a titan when he had a clear goal in mind before he changed but when he was thinking deeply like he was… He _could_ have had a goal in mind for all he knew. Either way, Levi made a mental note to ensure that Eren's skills, powers, whatever they'd be called over here remained a secret. It would only overcomplicate things if that information got out.

It was starting to give Levi a headache, thinking of all the different things that he was going to have to hide from the people here at this school. He presumed that only Dumbledore and whoever else was involved in his stupid _operation_ would know about their past and where they were from, but even then they wouldn't know the entire truth. It was kind of pointless to explain to them anyway, neither side would get anything out of it.

Looking around, Levi noticed that a couple of the students were beginning to pack their quills and parchment away now. Granted they'd arrived halfway through the lesson, but it had dragged on for a much longer time than he'd of liked. Pushing his unused equipment away, Levi began getting ready to leave himself. Not too long after did the bell signalling the end of the lesson ring. Standing up, he checked to see if, the now folded, map of the school was still tucked into one of the many straps of his uniform. It was. The map was concealed by Levi's jacket so that no-one could question him about it. Not that they would anyway.

* * *

><p>Gazing out of the Common Room window, Eren watched as some birds flew past and then out into the distance. From the window, he could see part of the Hogwarts grounds, and even though the weather was a little drizzly and cold, everything on the outside still appeared beautiful. An unfamiliar feeling washed over him, <em>'Is this how it feels… to be free?<em>' Eren thought to himself. He didn't speak out loud for fear of disturbing Levi, who was concentrating on reading a rather hefty book he'd found in the library about 'Magical Creatures'.

Eren couldn't decide whether Levi was reading it help gather information regarding the titans or whether it was to give them a little background information on the subject the both of them had supposedly favoured at 'their previous school'. Either way, it looked a lot more interesting than that potions rubbish. It was safe to say that neither of them learnt much during that lesson.

After potions, the two of them had decided to find their way to the Gryffindor Common Room to check to see if their Gear was there. And after many wrong turns and reluctantly asked directions, they'd found their way. A little after that, Eren had headed to the library to look through some material whilst Levi decided to have a walk around the school and get a feel for where everything was. The last thing either of them wanted was to wind up getting lost… again. Meeting up again only to get their lunch and dinner, Eren and Levi had each made their way back to the Common Room separately, but not after Levi had ventured into the large library and found himself a book from the pile of six Eren had picked out.

Four out of the five books were linked to Magical Creatures, one was about Hogwarts itself, and the sixth was an interesting one that had something about 'Transfigurations' written on the covers.

Being completely immersed in his thoughts, the young titan-shifter almost fell from his seat by the window as a loud cacophony of noise filled his ears. It seemed that the Gryffindor's had finished their lessons for today. Many of the students instantly made their ways upstairs to the dorms, but quite a few also stayed downstairs. Neither Eren nor Levi made a move to get out of the way, they both stayed put. Harry, Ron and Hermione made a beeline towards him. It looked like he'd made himself some friends.

Hermione sat on a stool near Eren and placed her heavy-looking school bag down on the floor with a tired sigh, Ron flopped down into one of the large armchairs on the other side of Eren. Harry was about to make a move to drag a chair over from the other side of the room, since all the others were taken, when Eren considerately swung his legs off the seat he was stretched out on and shuffled up to make room. Harry mumbled his thanks quietly as he sat down. They sat in a comfortable silence for a few moments before Eren looked around the now bustling room and scratched his head thoughtfully.

"I never knew it got this packed."

"Tell me about it! With this many people it can be so hard to get _anything_ done!" Hermione answered, fumbling with the hem of her skirt. Eren smiled slightly, Hermione seemed to be quite the worrier.

"Hey, any of you know what time it is?" Eren yawned.

"Oh, um, it's about seven." Harry supplied helpfully after glancing down at his watch. "Where are you sleeping, has Dumbledore told you?"

"Apparently Professor Levi and I have to sleep here for a couple of days whilst they sort out a room for us. Dumbledore said that we should stay in Gryffindor, something about it being best suited to us or something."

"You never know, you might be in the same room as me and Harry!" Ron laughed, then another thought crossed him mind, "Hang on, the _professors_ sleeping here too?"

"Yeah." Eren nodded, why was that a problem? He wondered.

"But then, if you're both in our room… that'll be weird! Having a teacher in there with us!" Ron shuddered slightly at the thought.

"I was wondering, how old are you? Because you don't seem much older than us." Hermione asked, Eren turned to face her as he gave his answer.

"Sixteen, why how old are you?"

"I'm fifteen." Hermione almost sounded proud of her age. They four of them continued their small talk for a lot longer than they intended. Eren, over the time he sat there, began to feel more and more at ease with his newfound friends. It felt nice, relaxing even, to not have to worry about being called out to fight or whether or not you or your friends were still going to be alive the same time tomorrow. Under it all, Eren still couldn't help but worry about what was going on back home. As interesting as this place was, he felt selfish. He was here having an ideal time and back home there were people being slaughtered like animals on an almost daily basis.

Eventually it was time to retire for the night and Eren couldn't have been happier. He stood up and stretched his aching back, wincing slightly as he felt the bones pop back into place. He walked over to where Levi was still lying on the sofa and stood as though to attention. This was one of the many times that Eren had had to stop himself from saluting; it was a harder habit to break out of than he'd originally thought.

"Cap- _Professor_ Levi, sir, we have to go and find our room now. Harry and Ron told me that we'd probably be in the same dormitory as they are, sir." Eren caught himself at the last minute again. He was going to get himself into serious trouble if he carried on slipping up like that. Eren tensed somewhat as Levi looked up at him from his book, which by now he had almost finished, and glared at him.

"Whatever." He swung his legs off the sofa and dog-eared the page of the book he was on before tucking it under his arm and following Eren, Harry and Ron up to the dorm. Hermione had already said goodnight and scurried off to the girls' dorms. The stairs leading to the higher floors were narrow and awkward to walk up in their group. Now this castle of a school really reminded him of the Recon Corps base even more, although he personally preferred base to Hogwarts - probably just because it's slightly more familiar. Even if he did have to sleep in the basement.

"Well this is it…" Ron trailed off as he opened the old wooden door. The door creaked rather loudly as though the hinges hadn't been oiled in a long time, even the floor boards groaned under their weight. Eren noticed Harry's immediate change in facial expression as they walked inside the room. He suddenly seemed more on edge and alert.

Looking around, there were seven beds inside the room; the room itself looked as though it had been distorted slightly. "Huh? Dumbledore must've made the room bigger or something." Ron said to himself.

"Yeah, I think you and the professor are definitely sleeping in here." Harry confirmed.

"Okay then, where are the professor and I going to-"

"OI!" Levi cut Eren off with a sharp yell. At first, he was confused but then the familiar clinking of metal and instantly brought his attention to the furthest part of the room. Which is where three boys sat crowded around on the furthest bed, four large metal boxes laying between them.

"Hey!" Eren exclaimed, marching past Harry and Ron and towards the boys messing around with their 3DMG. Unfortunately for them, Levi made it there first.

"Get your filthy hands off that! Give them here you little bastards!" He growled. The effect was instant, all three males jumped away like frightened animals and rightly so. Luckily they hadn't drawn the swords; they must've only just discovered the Gear.

"W-we're s-sorry Professor L-Levi, sir!" A brunette boy squeaked, running back to his bed, he looked a lot more scared than the other two students were. Both Eren and Levi took their Manoeuvre Gear back into possession before checking it over. Levi took the furthest bed and Eren took the one next to him.

"Are you sure you're a professor?" One of the students asked Levi bravely, he had a stranger accent than the other people here did, Eren thought.

"What's your name?" Levi ordered.

"Seamus Finnigan, Sir." The boy replied.

"Well, Seamus," Levi began, his hand twitched around the handle to one of his swords, "If I wasn't a professor, don't you think I'd already have one of these pointed at your throat for touching them?" Although his voice remained steady, it looked as though those words had shocked Seamus into silence. Levi slowly drew one of the swords, just for emphasis. He pretended to check it over before sheathing it again.

Eren wished that the Levi hadn't done that, it was only going to arouse more questions. But for the time being, his actions had successfully got the students to leave them alone. Levi quickly drew the curtains around his bed; Eren bet he wasn't at all happy about having to share a room with a bunch of kids, probably felt degrading or something. Either way, it looked like the both of them were going to have to suck it up and deal with it for a while, at least until they had their own rooms.

* * *

><p><strong>Hey there, thanks for all of the favourites, follows and reviews so far! I never thought I'd get so many! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and, in case you're wondering, there will be more encounters with Snape! <strong>

**Thanks for the support so far! :)**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

_Titans everywhere, consuming every being they could get their bloodied hands on. Wall Maria had been breached; Titans were streaming in and glancing around with their irremovable smiles as though they were coming home. It was a blood bath, crimson splatters were coating the walls – escape attempts were all futile. A woman, a mother, was being lifted by the hands of death from her place beneath her fallen house, a sickening crunch as she was bitten in half, her child left motherless. _

_Training, training, training, then, for many, a suicidal mission, friends were being killed and ripped apart like they were nothing more than inanimate toys. It was painful for both the observer and the recipient of the ghastly treatment. A blonde haired boy, Armin, about to have his name added to the list of soldiers and trainees who had lost their lives in the vicious battle. Eren reached in and saved his best friend in the nick of time, his arm being bitten away; adding to the agonising pain already coursing through his body. A stifling heat inside a Titans' stomach… bodies – some not even whole – floated in the dark red liquid, a girl was crying out for her mother. _

_Then fighting, fighting, fighting, using every last source of energy – it was terrifying. Being aimed at, pushed around, ordered, fighting, mentally, physically, verbally. Then back to the bloodbath, the images of strangers, friends, family, being eaten. A Titan turned to look at him, a target was made. A hand raising him up from the ground, it had no idea how hard it was clutching him. Two rows of oversized daggers coming up to meet him, closer and closer, they opened up to reveal a monstrous tongue. This was the end. His mouth opened up to scream, yet no sound came, he tried harder, nothing but the sharp sound his erratic breathing was making. _

"…_Eren!" The Titan was talking? But…. They don't speak, they don't understand any language. He continued to struggle; the teeth grazed his back as half of his body entered the mouth, a slow pressure descended across his back and stomach. The pressure then grew to pain as his skin was pierced,_

"_Eren!" The voice was louder this time. "…ake up… ren!" It was as though he was underwater; all sound was distant and distorted. He felt blood trickle, bead and dampen his clothes, it was warm and slightly sticky. His heart began pumping so hard he swore it was going to pound right out of his chest. Then the huge jaws locked shut and-_

"EREN!" The voice exclaimed. Eren felt a hand on his shoulder and, before he could even consider what he was doing, kicked the intruder away. He, Eren, knew that he'd hit his target because the sweaty hand left him and a loud "oof!" of pain sounded. Eren's eyes shot open as he sat upright in his bed clutching his stomach where the Titan's teeth would've been were he still in the nightmare. Panting, his vision focussed enough to show that all eyes in the room, rather dorm, were on him.

The three boys he recognised for touching the 3DMG earlier were still in their beds, although they were watching what was happening. The Seamus kid was muttering something under his breath with a scowl. Even Levi had drawn back one of the thin curtains that had been shielding him from sight, the corporal looked as though he was studying Eren – whilst at the same time giving him a noiseless warning to not do anything odd. It seemed as though Levi still hadn't abolished the idea that Eren may still transform in his sleep, at this point, although he'd never admit it aloud, Eren himself wasn't entirely sure what would've happened if he hadn't been awoken when he was.

Catching his breath, Eren's erratic breathing began to slow down as he realised it was all a terrible nightmare. He could feel sweat dampening his clothes rather than non-existent blood, his hair was practically matted to his forehead.

"Ugh… What was that for?" Ron grumbled as he picked himself up from the floor, which must've been who Eren had attacked. He felt a little guilty for it now.

"Sorry, Ron." Eren muttered, his voice sounded breathless. Moving closer to the bed again, Ron smiled.

"S'okay. I'm used to it. Y'see Harry here has nightmares too. You're both in the same boat I guess." The red-head gestured to Harry, who was standing beside him and looking rather puzzled.

"What's that?" Harry asked whilst pointing a pale finger in the direction of the large, brass-coloured key, resting above Eren's clothes, atop his chest. Looking down, Eren removed a clammy hand from his stomach and wrapped it tightly around the key in an almost defensive manner. Eren swiftly tucked the key under his shirt with closed eyes and a silent sigh, listening to the distinct clinking noise created as a product of the key making contact with his amulet.

"Something extremely important." Came Eren's answer as he opened his eyes. Ron and Harry exchanged fleeting glances.

"What's it for?" Ron questioned, looking interested. Eren leaned back into the soft cushions and covered his tired eyes with the crook of his arm.

"I can't tell you. Now just leave me alone."

"But then-"

"I said leave me alone!" Eren snapped, "Mind your own damn business!"

"Fine then, suit yourself." Ron muttered rudely with a nasty glance as he and Harry retreated back to their own beds.

"I'm going to ask Dumbledore to move me dorms!" Came Seamus's exasperated voice.

"Oh and why would that be?" Harry asked sarcastically, the two off them still annoyed with one another. Seamus narrowed his eyes and leaned forwards,

"Because I don't want to be stuck in a room with two idiots crying for their '_mummies'_ all night long, Harry was bad enough with his stupid lies…"

"Shut up!" Eren yelled he was quickly becoming frustrated with the situation. The problem here, in Eren's opinion, was that everyone thought that they knew best and they were right. Besides, Seamus didn't have the slightest clue what it was like to be haunted by these unforgettable memories, although, Eren hadn't experienced a nightmare like that one for a while. He guessed that it was because of all the added stress that he'd been under lately. "Don't _ever_ bring my mother into _anything_ you bastard!"

"Just because you're new here it doesn't mean that you can go around talking to people like that! God's sake, man, you need to get a grip on yourself!"

"Enough!" It was Levi this time who was now standing in front of his bed and using a quite the intimidating glare on the students, Eren included. "All of you need to shut the hell up and get lost! I'm a professor so I have the power to stick you all in detention and punish you as I wish. Got that?"

"Yes." Seamus growled frustrated.

"Yeah." Harry didn't take his eyes away from the wall, which now seemed very interesting to him. The only one who actually addressed Levi how he wanted to be addressed was Eren, who gave him a respectful "Yes, sir."

"Yes what?" Levi snapped.

"Yes, sir." Harry and Seamus answered, both looking at Levi.

"Good. Now get along like good children." And with that, Levi grabbed a clean white shirt and some black trousers he'd managed to get after reluctantly asking Dumbledore, and left the dorm room. Eren had exactly the same clothing once laid across the foot of his bed, now they were crumpled up on the floor. Once Levi had left, all eyes found their ways back to Eren. Being tired and annoyed he snapped at them,

"What? Got nothing better to look at?" He then grabbed his clothes and also left the room.

* * *

><p>Breakfast was awkward. Eren and Levi had arrived at the Great Hall to get some food well before many other people arrived. The early morning routine drilled into their heads from back home was still sticking with them. Hermione had then come trotting into the Hall not long after the duo, carrying a rather large looking school bag presumably filled with books. Eren and Hermione had been talking for a while and figuring out what to do with themselves for the day (although that was mostly just on Eren's part) and didn't even notice when hoards of students began filling in all the empty seats and dismissing all hopes of being to hear the person sitting next to you clearly as many of the students were 'talking' a lot louder than they needed to. Levi looked around as he sipped a goblet of coffee, having already finished his omelette.<p>

It wasn't long before Harry and Ron showed up. Both of them were obviously muttering something under their breaths to one another that they clearly didn't want anyone else to overhear. As they sat down they cast swift glances in Eren and Levi's direction. Harry sat near Levi, leaving plenty of space between them, whilst Ron took the space next to Hermione. Said girl was overly confused by the looks and lack of conversation between any of the boys. Not even Ron was being very talkative.

"Okay. What exactly is going on?" Hermione asked when she finally couldn't take sitting in silence any longer. When nobody answered she looked about the table, "Well…?"

"They're all being childish." Levi answered, not looking up from the table. He placed his goblet back down onto the table and glanced up at Eren, who was stabbing his fork repeatedly into what looked to have once been egg.

"Childish? What, did they have an argument or something?"

"Something like that." Came Levi's quiet but firm response. He sounded as though he was deep in thought.

"It wasn't _us_ that started it anyway!" Ron protested, as though he was completely oblivious to practically being called childish only moments ago. "Eren had a nightmare so me and Harry went over to wake him up. Then he lashed out at me and had a go at me and Harry just because we asked him about what some stupid key was!"

"Will you just drop it?" Eren growled slowly, he didn't appreciate this little game of Chinese Whispers. "You have no idea what I've be-"

"Eren." Levi interrupted him suddenly.

"Sir?"

"Let's go. If I remember correctly Snape wanted to see us before breakfast ends." Standing up, the two of them silently began to head out, Eren once again holding himself back before he ended up saluting. Upon being given such a sudden order and being requested to leave so suddenly, Eren didn't realise that he'd left something particularly important behind.

* * *

><p>"Something really doesn't feel right with those two, I'm telling you!" Harry announced as soon as Eren and Levi's retreating backs were out of sight. Harry turned his nose up at what he thought was a stupid emblem sewn on the back of Levi's green cloak (which he wore over his new clothing).<p>

"Yeah, I know what you mean…" Ron agreed. The three friends huddled closer together as they talked, they already had many people on their backs for what was being spread in the _Daily_ _Prophet_ and so they didn't want to hand people even more reasons to hate them.

"Honestly, I think that you're both paranoid." Hermione gave her opinion. "Just because they're new it doesn't mean that they're bad people."

"It's not just that though, 'Mione! It's the way that they showed up here! And did you see how defensive Dumbledore was?! None of the teachers looked as though they were expecting it." Ron explained, pushing his half empty plate away as he got further into the conversation.

"And not to mention the fact that they were covered in blood and injured!" Harry added.

"Well… I suppose that is kind of odd…" Hermione's decision seemed to be teetering on the edge of what to believe.

"We can't trust anyone. I know what I've seen and I think it's best if we at least look into the both of them. We don't even know where they come from, or what school they used to go to." Harry leaned forwards even further across the table.

"Yeah, I know what you mean Harry. And have you noticed how they always look surprised when magic is used? They both look like they've never even heard about it before." Evaluated Ron.

"I suppose they do seem to be reading a lot of books from the Library, most of which are used for the first years and for people who aren't too familiar with the concepts of magic and such… It's almost as I they're trying to develop their backstory! Remember how Dumbledore told us that they were Care of Magical Creatures specialists? Well if they're meant to be that good, why are they reading such basic books? Why aren't they reading the more complex stuff?"

"I see where you're heading!" Harry hummed.

"Then it's settled. We're going to have to do more research into Eren and Levi before we can trust them." Ron hit the table lightly with his right fist as though he thought he was in a court room. He then added as an afterthought, "Besides, Levi swears too much to be a professor."

"Yeah." Harry nodded absentmindedly as his eyes caught sight of something slightly more interesting. "I think I know where we can start our investigation."

"What? Where? What is it Harry?" Hermione asked excitedly.

"Look at what Eren left behind." Surely enough, two large silver boxes were resting innocently enough underneath the table, by sitting on the end seat, Eren had been able to hide them better whilst still being able to keep his eye on them. Harry was slightly puzzled about how Eren could possibly forget them, they were large and eye catching enough. Casting a thorough glance around the Hall, Harry mentally noted that many of the other students had either left or were far enough away not to notice what was going on providing he, Ron and Hermione didn't make a seen or speak too loudly. Most people at the Gryffindor table were sitting at the far end and would probably have no interest in what Harry was doing.

"Oi, Harry, what's it called again?" Ron asked, pointing at the Gear.

"I think Eren said it was called 3.D.M.G or something like that. I wonder what it stands for… Hermione, d'you know?"

"Not really. But I suppose I could try and find out." Hermione smiled slightly whilst still pouring over the 3DMG. She leaned over to touch it but suddenly drew her hand back. "It isn't dangerous or anything is it?" She quickly asked.

"Well, Levi did have a right go at Seamus, Dean and Neville when they were messing with it. But other than that, nothing happened. I don't think there's anything really magical about it." Ron supplied.

"There are swords in there though, so be careful about them." Harry warned. Hermione nodded a she wrapped a careful hand around one of the battered handles, slowly moving her arm back; she partially revealed one of the blades. Ron and Harry were kneeling down on opposite sides of the Gear so that they could both see the weapons being drawn. Harry noticed that the handles looked like they had further functions than just being sword handles; he pointed this out in a loud whisper,

"Hey, what do you think those do?" He pointed at what looked like a brake for a bike or something of the sort.

"I don't know. Maybe we shouldn't mess with these… I mean, what if something happens or we get caught!?" Hermione was about to put the sword back when she accidently tightened her fingers too much and one of the buttons pushed down. She gasped as the sword was released from the handle and dropped back into the silver box with a loud clank.

"Cool…" Ron drawled, smiling. "What do the other things do?" He asked interestedly.

"Well, the large one clearly looks like a brake to something. I could be wrong, but this is similar to the one you'd find on a muggle bike." Hermione answered, Harry was almost positive it was a brake now.

But a brake for what exactly?

"If that's a brake, doesn't that mean it has to move in some way?" Ron asked, "Try the last button, what's that do?"

"I guess we'll find out." Hermione hesitated before beginning to put pressure on the final button.

All three of them failed to notice the two figures standing in the entrance of the now almost empty Great Hall.

"STOP!" Eren cried loudly. An unnatural blow of air in his face was enough to let him know, Levi was already on the move.

* * *

><p><strong>Hello there and sorry for how long it's taken to update and for the short chapter! I've been pretty busy. And whilst I'm on the subject…<strong>

**PLEASE NOTE: I WON'T BE UPDATING UNTIL AROUND THE 27****TH**** OF AUGUST DUE TO THE FACT I'LL BE ON HOLIDAY.**

**I apologise for that. By the way, you can now see the progress of each chapter on my profile! Feel free to check it out if you get time!**

**Anyway, thank you SO MUCH for the support so far! Each review, follow and favourite mean so much!**

**Thanks :) **


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

"Eren, you're a Goddamn idiot!" Levi growled harshly as he and Eren exited the Great Hall. Despite the fact that Eren was a good few inches taller than Levi, he still found himself having to jog to keep up with the hasty pace the Corporal was setting. Eren turned back to make sure nobody was following them before answering, there wasn't.

"I'm sorry, sir." Apologised Eren as they turned to walk down an empty corridor, all of the students were either setting up for lessons in the classrooms, were still eating breakfast or were in their allotted Common Room. Once Levi realised that they were alone, he swiftly turned to Eren, grabbing a hold of one of his arms and pushing him into the wall. Eren could feel his heart thumping wildly as his arm stung from where Levi was purposely digging his nails into his arm. He couldn't say that he was surprised about the fact that he still felt the intended pain even through his long-sleeved shirt and jacket.

"You just don't get it, do you?" Levi's voice was low and threatening, Eren was confused.

"G-get what, sir?" He fought to keep his voice level meanwhile hoping that he wasn't saying the wrong words. The last thing he wanted right now was to be in trouble with Levi.

"Don't play dumb!" Levi pressed his left hand even harder into Eren's right arm; Eren bit back a cry of pain. "The way you're going you're going to end up revealing everything to everyone before we've even made our first week here! If you keep slipping up and saying things, people are going to get suspicious and start asking questions!"

"…Oh. I… I never realised what I was doing. I won't let it happen again, sir!" Eren stood straighter and spoke confidently.

"You'd better not, Jaegar! I ain't saving your ass because I want to!"

"So… we don't actually have to go to Snape?" Eren asked bravely as Levi's grip loosened slightly, said man then roughly thrust Eren's arm back into the wall before turning on his heel and walking away.

"Incorrect, Snape does actually want to see us. He got one of the students to pass the message on to me whilst you were still sleeping your lazy backside off." He called behind him as Eren hurriedly ran to catch up, massaging his upper arm gingerly. Great. Just who Eren wanted to see, he sighed inaudibly. Better to get this over with rather than drag it out.

And so the two of them set off to see what exactly it was the professor wanted. Eren wasn't happy with this, he didn't particularly like Snape, and he, Eren, was pretty sure Snape didn't like him much either. Eren noticed that Levi seemed to know where he was going now, previously they'd had to use a map to navigate their way around but Levi's exploring around the school whilst all the students were in lessons seemed to have paid off. Looking at the stone walls, Eren noticed how easy it would be to just use their Manoeuvre Gear right now rather than walk, it wasn't like there was anyone around to see them…

Eren's hands twitched downwards slightly at the thought of his 3DMG. It was way too quiet around here, and nor Eren or Levi had been able to use their 3DMG or do any training or sparring or anything of the sort. It was really getting to him. Eren vaguely wondered whether Levi felt the same way. He, of all people, hadn't ever really been subject to a peaceful way of life, even before he was brought in to be a soldier. Slowly moving his hands even further downwards, although he looked as though it was something that he wasn't supposed to do, his heart skipped a beat when he was met with nothing but the fabric of his trousers. Eren looked down and gasped.

He didn't have his 3DMG. Levi was going to kill him. What if one of the students had gotten a hold of it again?! Damn, Eren was going to have to run back for it. Stopping in his tracks, Eren stared into Levi's back patiently, waiting for him to realise that, he, Eren was no longer following him. Levi only took a few more steps forwards before halting and turning his head to the left slightly to see why Eren had stopped.

"What?" Levi ordered, not at all looking impressed.

"I've left my Manoeuvre Gear back at the Hall." Eren got straight down to the point. Levi's eyes widened a very slight amount, in a way that was easy to miss if you weren't looking for it.

"What was I just saying about having to lay low?! You're such an idiot!" Snapped Levi. Eren swallowed before replying.

"We'll have to go back and get it now, sir, in case someone takes it. Sorry sir."

"Better get moving then, brat." He turned around and strode towards Eren, grabbing the teen by the material of his jacket, in the middle of his back, and forcefully thrusting him forwards. Eren almost fell over but caught himself before he did so. Anxiety clawed uncharacteristically at his insides, why was he so worried? Was it worry for his Gear, or was he worried one of the students had injured themselves on it? Or was it both? Eren found himself subconsciously asking himself why he should be worried about those naïve school kids anyway, even if they were the same age as he was, they hadn't seen anything. They probably all had nice lives in a protected environment, they wouldn't know danger if it hit them in the face.

Either way, he wanted that Gear back. The duo marched quite quickly in order to reach their destination, Eren's legs burned slightly at moving so quickly… Damn, he was getting out of shape. Upon arrival, Eren could faintly hear a metallic clacking noise, it wasn't very loud but his ears had trained themselves to listen out for that particular sound.

It seemed like the students had discovered the treasure he'd left behind. Turning into the Great Hall, the teen found his 3DMG in his direct line of sight – along with Harry, Ron and Hermione. Great. Hermione was holding one of the controls, her grip wrapped firmly around the battered object. Eren released a breath he didn't know that he was holding as he saw that none of the students had gotten hurt from his mistake – he still didn't understand why he was so bothered about them.

Then, everything seemed to move in slow motion. A single one of Hermione's slim fingers coiled around the trigger to the wires and began to apply pressure.

"STOP!" Eren cried out, surprising even himself. His voice hadn't sounded like his own just then. The sudden noise had startled Hermione and consequently, the trigger was pulled. A single, grapple-hooked wire shot out from the device and launched towards a high area of one of the nearby stone walls.

Levi made a move before he did. Eren never even saw him move, he merely felt an unnatural rush of air in his face and heard the high whistling sound as Levi's Manoeuvre Gear kicked into action and Levi himself went hurtling towards Hermione. The familiar sound of metal skimming along metal announced that the Captain had drawn his swords. Watching as Hermione was yanked and dragged unforgivably across the surface of the Gryffindor table width-ways as the wire coiled back on itself. Eren could see her attempting to get her hand around the brake but before that could happen Levi had sliced clean through the wire.

He spun around in his signature way a single time before his booted feet landed heavily on the surface of the table, regardless of the fact that people actually had to eat off it later. Running up to the table, Eren took his possession from Hermione, who was brushing herself off with a frightened look on her face, and gathered up the other half of the, now useless, wire. Running a hand through his hair, Eren growled quietly.

"Did you _have_ to cut through it, sir?" He asked Levi, who was still standing on the surface of the table, looking down at all of them. Levi's gaze flickered to Eren, both of them stared at each other for a moment before a rough hand grabbed Eren's shoulder. He, Eren, presumed that they, whoever they were, were giving a very measly attempt at trying to spin him around. Eren was harder to move than they'd thought. "What?" He asked as he turned to face whoever was behind him. Ron and Harry.

"Aren't you even going to check to see if Hermione's alright?" Harry yelled angrily. "Or is that stupid death machine of yours all you care about?"

"Oh, right." Eren's eyes widened as he realised what he'd done, or rather lack off. He placed his hands gently upon Hermione's shoulders and looked her in the eyes. "You aren't hurt, are you? I'm really sorry, honestly!" Eren stepped back and removed his hands. The brunette girl smiled slightly as she answered,

"It's okay. Honestly, it was all my fault for deciding to mess with your… that anyways." She gestured to the Gear.

"That was so cool!" A squeaky little voice cried happily. All five of them simultaneously twisted around to see a tiny little First-Year boy beaming up at Levi, his eyes practically sparkling. Behind him were a couple of other students, both First-Years. The boy who'd spoke had shaggy blond hair and wide blue eyes – he kind of looked like a younger, mini Erwin. Eren couldn't supress his snigger.

"Huh. Looks like you got yourself some fans, Professor." Ron raised his eyebrows and smirked up at Levi.

* * *

><p>"You took your time." Was Professor Snape's greeting as he opened the classroom door and came face-to-fact with Eren and Levi.<p>

"Sorry, professor, we got... held up." Eren decided that "held up" were the only two words he could really use to describe what'd happened without going into detail.

"Well I have a class to teach now. So we'll have to speak out here." Snape stepped back into the dungeon for a few moments to throw some orders at the students, Second-Years apparently, before treading outside the classroom and bringing the door behind it. Apparently, Snape was a door-slamming kind of person.

"So what did you want to see us about?" Levi questioned, not even giving the professor a chance to open his mouth.

"If you'd so kindly allow me to speak, I believe that I'd be able to tell you." Was his cold reply, Snape quickly glanced about them to check that there was nobody around before speaking. "You know how you got here, correct?"

"Yes." Levi replied, Eren nodded.

"Well those beasts-"

"Titans," Eren filled in, earning himself a glare from Snape. His weren't as bad as Levi's.

"Those _Titans_ are still as real a threat here as they are where you're from,-"

"As much as I highly doubt that, please do continue." It was Levi who interrupted this time around.

"Anyway. In the past month, there has been a sudden increase in the number of attacks. During last month alone I had to vanquish nine Titan's to you. Recently, they've been found wandering around near school premises quite often, and their astounding size is making it increasingly hard to get rid of them. Personally, I do not want to get stomped to death by one, so I thought it was in all of our best interests to notify you.

"I mean, you are trained in this area, aren't you? Dumbledore recently filled me in on this most unfortunate situation." Snape's words could've seemed sympathetic if they weren't spoken with so little emotion. It was slightly unnerving. Eren felt the need to speak up again as he realised something that the professor may not already know.

"Professor?" Eren cleared his throat and scrunched his dark eyebrows together.

"Yes, what is it?" Snape droned.

"You do know that Titan's don't "stomp people to death", right?" He asked carefully. Snape's own eyebrows lowered as his looked questioningly towards the teenager.

"Well what else could they possibly do? They seem to have the brain power of a troll."

"They eat people. That's all they do. The eat people yet don't need to consume to live." Eren's voice was firm, he felt slightly uncomfortable about the fact that these "magic folk" had absolutely no idea of what the Titans are capable of.

"They… eat people?" Snape echoed, he seemed slightly less brave and threatening now that he had that little gem of information lodged firmly in his brain. "But… Surely, they can't…"

"So my friends dropped dead of their own accord? Is that what you're saying?!" Eren's voice was straining to stay calm and level. Levi put an arm in front of Eren to signal him to shut up.

"You may leave now." Severus stepped backwards towards the door, still keeping a level face. "Just remember what I've told you. We're still at risk of an attack even now. And all the teachers here would highly appreciate it if you both kept your mouths shut about all of this. None of the students need to know about this. Especially Potter and his friends." He added the last part as an after-thought before returning to his class.

Eren and Levi were left staring at the door once more.

"What now?" Eren asked tiredly. Levi continued to watch the door carefully as he spoke.

"We should go and train." Levi answered without hesitation.

"Train?"

"Yes, train. If what Severus says is true, then we can't just sit around wasting our time on this place. We aren't magical so why the hell should we attend magic lessons?" Levi almost spat the words magic out. He strongly disagreed with the concept of it all. Eren couldn't blame him though, because as wonderful as magic was – Eren thought that it made people lazy and much too reliant on those stupid sticks.

As soon as they were wand-less, they'd all be defenceless.

* * *

><p>Finding a place to train was not as hard a task as what they'd originally thought. There was a large quad, three of the sides were surrounded by outdoor passage ways and the third was one of the many entrances to the indoor of the school. The space seemed perfect, they could definitely practise whatever it was Levi wanted to practise here.<p>

"Alright, Jaegar, listen up! First up, Vertical Manoeuvring, second, physical training. Got it?"

"Yes sir!" Eren stood to attention before getting into position to fire the grapple-hooks. He was more than thankful that Hermione had used magic to repair the damage that Levi had so purposely caused. Said man was already gliding through the air with ease, and, in Eren's eyes, he couldn't help but see it all as a challenge. So without a second thought, Eren applied pressure to the trigger and off he went. A smile broke out uncontrollably onto his face; it felt like so long since he'd used his Gear.

As Eren successfully accomplished his fourth backflip whilst suspended in the air, he couldn't help but feel that the space felt quite a considerable amount smaller now that he was actually moving. He sighed as the initial blast of contentedness ebbed away and he found himself wanting to go even further.

"Captain!" Eren called out, "Why don't we do a lap around the school? The roofs here are perfect for practising turns!" He fought against the wind to ensure his words reached his Captain's ears, with both of them in the air; it was kind of hard to hear things over the rushing wind in their ears.

"Sounds good!" Was Levi's unexpected answer as he immediately changed direction and made a move towards one of the nearest cone-roofed towers. Eren followed without hesitation. Manoeuvring around using the 3DMG had become somewhat second nature for Eren, so he didn't even feel as though he was thinking as he gracefully travelled at an astounding speed. In no time, Eren was following his superiors' lead and was carefully ensuring his weight was distributed in all the right places as he swung around the tower. At one point, the rough stone came up a little too close to his face for comfort.

Analysing the best route to take in his head, Eren then continued his airborne trek about the magnificently large castle. He couldn't help but awe over the size of it. As they passed by, Eren made a habit of looking into the windows at all the students sitting inside, most of them were working, listening or throwing paper airplanes at one another, but there was a handful of them that were probably staring out of the window in a daydream and saw Eren and Levi speed past. Eren couldn't resist feeling amused at the pure shock that showed on their faces, even in the split second he had to glance at them, it stood out as clear as day.

All of this almost made Eren forget about Snape's warning, _almost_. That was the one thing that was holding him back from enjoying the sensation of flying. Because of this, the "training" was over before he'd had the chance to properly enjoy or savour it. Eren wasn't sure about how long they'd been going for, but he was pretty sure they were soaring over the rooftops for at least ten minutes. Both of them, Eren and Levi, had purposely chosen the longest and most complicated route possible to drag it out.

When his feet were placed firmly on the ground again, Eren's senses were buzzing with energy, he still felt like he was flying, rather than standing on the ground, almost like the time he was tricked into drinking alcohol and the burning feeling was still vaguely clutching his throat even five minutes later. Levi smoothed out his hair and his clothes before opening his mouth to talk.

Well at least he looked as though he was going to talk. Unless Levi's voice had suddenly gone very high-pitched and girly, someone else was speaking.

"Excuse me!" The voice was sickeningly sweet and girlish, it almost sounded fake. Turning to find the source of the voice, Eren was slightly taken aback by the display of so much pink on such an unfeminine looking woman. In fact, Eren wouldn't be surprised if the supposed human before him was actually a talking toad; the short, squat woman definitely gave that impression. He knew that he shouldn't judge by appearances or anything, but Eren was harbouring a strong feeling of dislike just by looking at the woman. Judging by the look on Levi's face, he was thinking similarly.

"I'm Professor Umbridge, and I'm afraid that you're going to have to come with me."

* * *

><p><strong>Hello there! I'm so sorry for the wait! I know that this update was nowhere near where I predicted it would be but after my holiday things got pretty busy! Anyway, thanks so much for all the nice words, favourites and follows (117 follows! Yay!), I'm so glad that you like this story, I was kinda nervous about starting it at first but I'm glad that I did.<strong>

**On a different note, I'd like your opinion on an event I'm thinking of squeezing in sometime soon. I was thinking of maybe having Eren and Levi see a Boggart for the first time. That'd be interesting, I think, but I want to know what you all think if you have time! **

**Ps: Updates may not be as frequent due to the fact school starts on Wednesday; I'm going into Year 10 so I'll be pretty busy doing homework and stuff but I'll still find time to write!**

**Thanks again! :)**


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

Eren and Levi just stood and watched the strange woman for an awkward few seconds, trying to decide whether to do as she said or not. The woman, Professor Umbridge smiled sweetly again before clearing her throat with a girly "hem hem" and turning on her heel to walk back into the building.

"Come now! Follow me!" She sang. Eren pulled a face of utter disgust before adjusting his gear, putting everything back into its correct place, and pushing his windswept hair out of his eyes. His hair could really benefit from a good cutting, it'd gotten a little too long at the front and Eren couldn't remember the last time he'd cut it. For a change, Eren was the first to follow Umbridge, Levi followed afterwards. Technically speaking though, Eren was classed as a student whilst they were both confined to Hogwarts, so he really did have to follow teachers' orders if he wanted to lay low. However impossible that seemed to be to accomplish.

As the three of them made their way through the wide, main corridor, the bell rung rather loudly in their ears, Umbridge smiled at something that Eren and Levi didn't know whilst the latter two winced at the harsh abuse on their ears. They must have been right next to one of the bells or something. Within seconds, the rumble of students chattering animatedly as they poured out of the classrooms filled the once silent air. A sea of black robes and lanky limbs pushed against them in a tidal wave, all of them heading the opposite way to which Umbridge was taking them.

Eren was thankful that, for the most part, he was as tall, if not taller, than the vast majority of the students. This at least made his job of getting through a little easier. He couldn't say the same for Levi though. Being only five-foot-three must have made his job a little harder; at least he had his strength and authority to push through. Once they had made their way through the initial huddle of students, Eren looked back and sighed.

"What was that all about?" He asked. Umbridge answered without looking back.

"Oh, nothing, it's only break time."

"Oh. Well this school is pretty big, it only makes sense that there'd be loads of students, I guess." Eren concluded.

"Where are we going?" Levi asked on a complete change of subject. At this, the pink professor glanced behind her.

"I'm taking you to my classroom."

"Huh? Why?" Eren asked whilst furrowing his dark eyebrows in confusion.

"Because, Mr Jaeger, you were fooling about on school property! Not to mention during class time! If you're really going to choose not to attend lessons than the least you could do would be something a little more productive."

"What?! But we-"

"You know, there are some things more important than your shitty _'magic'_ lessons. Why would we need to learn about some hocus-pocus crap when we could be using our time for training? Tell me, Professor; is education really more important than lives?" Levi cut Eren off with his own statement. Eren decided that it was better and more thought out an argument than the angry rambling that would of came out of _his_ mouth, so he didn't protest at the interruption.

"Excuse me, Professor! But I _highly_ disagree with your language! Please refrain from such vulgarity when around the students! Their innocent ears don't need to hear any of this!"

"I'll say whatever the hell I want to." Levi fought back in a blunt statement, glaring coldly into her cardigan-clad back.

"Well we'll discuss all of your opinions and such after lesson. Either way, we're here." Umbridge opened the door to her classroom and gestured with her arm for the two of them to go inside, her beady little eyes following them the whole way. Eren looked around and saw that this classroom was much like a couple of the others that he'd been in. Although this one didn't have the terrible odour that Snape's did. Instead, this room smelled unquestionably girly, like flowers and strong perfume – Eren found the smell sickly and highly unattractive. "I want you two to set out the books for next lesson. You'll be attending too."

"Wait a minute! Don't we get a say in any of this?!" Eren focused his annoyance on the teacher. She closed the door before going to a pile of thick textbooks which were lying on a rather large desk at the front, probably Umbridge's main desk.

"I'm afraid not Mr Jaeger. Now, if you and professor Levi could so kindly get to work and set the books out on the desk I'd be quite happy."

"But don't you have magic to do that crap?"

"_Language!_ Now get to work!" She snapped. Eren was right. He definitely did _not_ like Umbridge. Growling, the irritated teen went up to the aged wooden desk and seized an armful of seven books, surprised when Levi went over and also took an armful. When the Captain saw Eren looking at him curiously, Levi gave a very small, almost unnoticeable smirk.

"What? Wouldn't want you to get a paper cut handing all of these books out now, would we?"

* * *

><p>Once all the books had been handed out, Eren removed his leather jacket and slumped down into one of the chairs about halfway down the aisle. He threw the jacket over his head and was startled when he felt it suddenly move away from his face almost a minute later. Eren shot upright in his seat and grabbed his jacket back. As he did, he caught sight of Umbridge's toad-like face, looking rather happy.<p>

"Please put your jacket on the back of the chair. And do remove all of those ridiculous straps. In fact, give me all of your… gear."

"No." Was Eren's simply reply. Like hell he was going to give his 3DMG up to some wrinkled old toad.

"Excuse me, but I believe the answer to that is _'yes, Professor Umbridge_._'_" She cleared her throat in her aggravatingly consistent manner before holding out her hand in demand. Eren stood, or rather sat, his ground, crossing his arms defiantly.

"At least let me take it back to the dorms!"

"I believe I said that I wanted you to give it to me. I _will_ take it by force if necessary."

"'By force?' And how exactly are you going to do that?" Eren scoffed, leaning forwards. Next came something that he should've foreseen. Umbridge raised her wand and swished it gently using a quickly flicking motion of her wrist. Then, one by one, the straps of Eren's harness slowly undid themselves, one by one, before the leather dropped to the floor with a soft pat and the 3DMG fell with a metallic clanging noise. The blades inside still rattling even after the initial impact.

"What the- HEY! Stop it!" Eren yelled, drawing the attention on Levi, who'd been handing out the last of the books.

"Oi!" He called sharply, marching over to where Umbridge was now, quite happily, levitating Eren's Gear, suspending it in mid-air. Turning on her heel, the professor, as if oblivious to Levi's intimidating presence, began walking towards the door. "What the hell are you doing?!"

"I'm confiscating this until further notice. There is no reason for a student to be armed. I'd recommend you too, Professor, to put that… well _gear_ away. I don't suppose that you're going to need it during your stay at Hogwarts, surely." Her voice dripped with false sweetness, it didn't suit her at all.

"Confiscating?" Levi repeated, "I don't think that's necessary. Now give the brat his stuff back, the headmaster has approved of our gear."

"I'm sorry, Professor Levi, but I am from the Ministry, and therefore I have authority alongside Dumbledore. If I want to do something, I can very well do it." Levi made a sound of disagreement, crossing his arms over and narrowing his eyes. He clearly knew that there was no point in arguing.

"But-" Eren started. Before he could finish what he was going to say, an arm shot up to stop him. Levi held the back of his slim hand in front of Eren's face.

"Make sure nobody, including you, touches it. Got that?" The Captain ordered. Umbridge gave an incredulously fake smile before hunching her shoulders up and down in a singular, swift movement as though talking to a young child.

"You have my word! Now, I'll be going to put this in my office, stay here and do not move." And with those being her concluding words, she continued on her way to the door. Neither Eren nor Levi moved or spoke again until they could no longer hear her retreating footsteps clacking against the stone floor.

"Umbridge?" Eren scoffed as he sank forcibly back down into his previous seat. "More like Um_bitch_!"

"If anyone so much as lays a finger on that Gear…" Levi began. Eren blinked in confusion at Levi. Since when did he care so much? "That stuff's expensive to replace." That explained it.

* * *

><p>Before too long had passed, the bell signalling the end of break rang and a hoard of students came rushing into the class, laughing about something. Immediately, the students filled in the seats, making sure that they were surrounded by their friends, and setting their bags down underneath their chairs. As they filed in, Eren noticed three particular students which looked all too familiar. Harry, Ron and Hermione to be exact. Harry and Ron sat down next to each other in the seats before the ones that Eren and Levi were occupying whereas Hermione took the one behind them. Hermione gave him a shy smile before quickly looking away, her face slightly red. She appeared to still be embarrassed from the Manoeuver Gear incident. Before any of them could even begin to speak to one another the door creaked open and then entered Professor Umbridge.<p>

A black, velvet bow, which was not before there, now wobbled in a minuscule fashion with every short stride the woman took. A wide smile stretched sweetly across her face, although Eren was pretty sure that it was in fact an evil smile.

"Good Morning, class!" She said when she had eventually made her way to stand before the class. Making a 'tutting' noise, Umbridge then spoke again, "Now now,_ that_ won't do, will it? I should rather like you to please reply "Good Morning, Professor Umbridge". One last time please. Good Morning, class!"

"Good Morning, Professor Umbridge," The class, excluding Eren and Levi, chanted back in bored voices. None of them particularly liked being spoken to as it they were nursery children in a primary school.

"There. That wasn't so hard now, was it?" The professor said sweetly, still smiling at them. "Now quills out and wands away, if you would please."

Quiet murmurs picked up and carried across the room, earning a soft "shh" from Umbridge. This obviously wasn't something that they, the students, were asked to do often. Eren watched intently as Harry stuffed his wand back inside his bag and replaced it with his quill, ink and parchment.

Taking her own unusually short, wand from her handbag, Umbridge strode over and gave the blackboard a sharp tap. Almost instantaneously did words appear, Eren squinted to read what they said:

_Defense__ Against the Dark Arts_

_A Return to Basic Principles_

"I do believe that your teaching in this subject has been rather fragmented, therefore I do believe that it is necessary to return to the basics." Umbridge stated, turning away from the perfect, cursive text on the blackboard and facing the class instead. "What I will be teaching you all this year is a Ministry approved course. Looking back on your previous work, it seems none of the past teachers you have had has even _looked_ at the curriculum. This most unfortunate event has resulted in your being far below the standard levels we'd expect from you all during your OWL year." Eren distinctly heard one of the students scoff, the professor turned to look at them before continuing her speech.

"As I was saying… All these problems are now to be rectified. By following this specially crafted, theory-based, Ministry-approved course of defensive magic you'll all be able to thrive and achieve the grades that you want to achieve. Now, please copy down these aims." Keeping a watchful eye over her students, Professor Umbridge tapped the blackboard once again.

Eren watched in amazement as the former text magically vanished from the blackboard and was replaced with the words "Course Aims." Without bothering to read what else Umbridge was putting up on the board, Eren glanced around at the other people in the room. Most eyes were watching the blackboard with bored expressions; meanwhile others were already beginning to copy the aims down onto their parchment. Looking over to his left, he, Eren, saw Levi sitting back in his chair with his arms crossed. He didn't look very amused.

"Excuse me, Mr Jaeger, but I do believe that I told you to copy down these aims." Umbridge's voice called out over the harsh scratching of the quills. Jumping slightly as the sudden call-out, Eren stared at the teacher.

"But it isn't required that I do any work in this class. I'm here to research my own stuff." He countered. Umbridge stepped forwards slightly, as if rising to the challenge.

"Well, I don't suppose swinging around the rooftops using that fancy gear of yours is really researching. Now, get to work." A handful of the students looked up at those words.

"I'm sorry professor, but Jaeger is right. We aren't here to obey what teachers of this school say." Levi butted in, keeping his calm composure. Professor Umbridge's eyes narrowed slightly and her mouth pinched closed as if trying to decide what to say next, then, just like that, another one of her ghastly smiles broke out upon her toad-like face.

"Detention, Mr Jaeger. You're to join me tonight at five o'clock in my office."

"What? Why?!" He yelled, the other students were now looking back and forth between Eren and Umbridge as if there were attending a tennis match.

"For your failure to comply with instructions, now come and get some parchment, a quill and a pot of ink from my desk. Scowling, Eren stood up. He pushed his chair back rather forcefully and sauntered over to the front desk. Eren couldn't believe what a waste of time this crappy lesson was turning out to be. Right now, he could've been training or gathering up some more information regarding what the hell was going on, maybe even get more in-tell from the teachers that been involved with what they think to be Titan attacks. Eren wondered what'd happen if there was another attack. Would they send him and Levi out to fight? Or would the witches and wizards take care of this with their magic? Either way, that didn't change the fact that he was currently engaged, against his will, in this lesson, and all because of that stupid _Umbitch_ or whatever the heck her name was. Eren didn't really care.

Once he was seated again, the professor continued on as though nothing had happened. He wasn't listening.

"I know there's no point in doing all this shit but we have to stay under the radar and _not_ draw attention to ourselves, you got that Brat?" Levi whispered under his breath, leaning to the side slightly so he didn't have to raise his voice that loudly for his subordinate to hear.

"I know, sir. But this is just so _pointless_!" Eren whispered back sharply. Levi leaned forwards and rested his head in his hand without answering. Eren sighed loudly in frustration and almost spilled the ink over as he fumbled around to get all of the equipment in the right place. Eyeing round the class, the brunette saw that the majority of the students were now reading, or at least pretending to read. Eren heard the dull creak of a table behind him and saw Hermione with her hand straight up in the air, attempting to draw Umbridge's attention. The latter seemed intent on ignoring her for the time being.

"Hey, Professor, Hermione wants you!" Eren called out, much to Hermione's embarrassment. Said Professor looked in their direction before speaking to the girl as though she'd only just noticed that her hand was up.

"Yes dear? Would you like to ask something about the chapter?" Briefly glancing behind, Eren noticed that Hermione's book still remained untouched, so that couldn't possibly be what she wanted to ask about.

"No, Professor, it's something else."

"Well then it can wait until the end of the class, you're supposed to be reading right now." Umbridge said clearly.

"But it's a question about the course aims," Hermione tried again.

"And what would your name be?"

"Hermione Granger," She replied.

"Well I do believe that if you'd read this chapter through, Miss Granger, you'd surely find all the answers to your questions."

"Yes but there's nothing at all in here about using defensive spells!" Hermione stressed, as if it was something that Umbridge had mistakenly left out.

"_Using_ defensive spells?" The Professor laughed, "Why, I can't even begin to imagine what sort of a situation would arise in my classroom that would need a defensive spell! Surely you aren't expecting for an attack in the middle of class, Miss Granger?"

"Hang on a moment; we're not going to be using magic? At all?!" Ron exclaimed loudly, not considering the fact that he was in a classroom and addressing a teacher.

"Excuse me, Mr-?"

"Weasley," Ron filled in rather irritably.

"Mr Weasley, all students are to raise their hands in my classroom when they wish to speak. You are no exception!"

Ron thrust his hand into the air with a frustrated sigh and growled when Umbridge haughtily turned her back and walked away. Harry raised his hand along with Hermione. Even Eren was getting annoyed at the situation.

"Aren't you going to talk to them? Harry, Ron and Hermione all have their hands up!" Eren looked confused.

"Did you not hear what I just said?" Umbridge turned on Eren, "Students are to raise their hand when they wish to speak!"

"Jeeze," Eren ground out under his breath, he didn't bother to raise his hand. Personally, Eren didn't really see the point, it just made him feel like a child, and he was far from that. Harry suddenly burst, not caring that he was getting a lot of hateful stares.

"But what's the point in all this if we're not even going to learn how to protect ourselves! If we're going to be attacked, it's not going to be risk-free and theory-based!"

"_Raise your hand_, Mr Potter!" Umbridge sang. Thrusting an anger clenched fist up high into the air above his head, the raven-haired boy pursed his lips in an effort to keep from shouting out again. Umbridge appeared to be enjoying all of this. Turning on her heel, she went back to her desk and sat down, as though all of this was tiring to her. Another hand shot up into the air, it was one of the boys from the Gryffindor Dorm, and Eren instantly recognized him as Dean.

"What is your name?" Asked Umbridge when she noticed his hand.

"Dean Thomas."

"What would you like to ask, Mr Thomas?" Dean's face hardened slightly in his seriousness.

"If you think about it, Harry's right. If we ever did get attacked, it wouldn't be risk free. And then we wouldn't be able to protect ourselves because we wouldn't know how!"

"But, dear, who on Earth would you expect to want to attack such innocent children such as yourselves? Due to your previous teachers, you have been taught dangerous and potentially lethal spells which are wholly inappropriate for your age group, from this you've all been frightened into believing that Dark attacks are going to pop up every other day. In this environment you are learning in a safe and secure place."

"If these students are telling the truth, and it is indeed possible that they're going to be attacked, don't you think that it would be better if you just taught them something they can actually apply in the real world rather than this crap." Levi spoke up. Being a soldier, he understood how dangerous it was when being attacked, and he had seen first-hand that if there's even the slightest chance of an attack, you need to be prepared.

"Professor Levi, with all due respect, this is a _Ministry_ approved course, structured for the benefit of the students!"

"So you keep saying. You know, I couldn't really care less if this is 'Ministry approved' or not." He continued with bluntness. Umbridge glared at him for a moment before turning away.

"Now, let's just get on with-"

"Professor Levi it saying exactly what we all think! Why don't you just listen to us?" Harry yelled.

"Silence!" Umbridge snapped, "Who on Earth would attack you?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe… _Lord Voldemort_?" Harry bit out in mock thoughtfulness, not at all phased by his use of the Dark Lord's name. Eren almost found the reaction it received funny. Ron gasped loudly, his face paling, Neville toppled sideways out of his chair and a couple of girls in the row next to them uttered little screams. Seriously, what was with that? The room was unnervingly quiet for a few moments before Umbridge's voice called out;

"Ten points from Gryffindor, Mr Potter!" She snapped, "Now, Let me get a few things straight." Her voice calmed back down as she leaned forwards across her desk. "You have been told that a certain Dark Wizard is making a return-"

"He _has _returned!" Harry said angrily, quickly loosing what little patience he had to start with.

"Silence, Mr Potter! You have already lost yourself ten house points!" She barked without so much as glancing at him. "As I was saying, all of this nonsense about the Dark Lord coming back into power is just that. _It. Is. A. Lie_." Umbridge punctuated each of the last words as though to get her point across.

"It isn't a lie! I fought him!" Harry's voice was straining. Eren was a little taken aback by the fierce power, it reminded him a little of himself for some reason. Maybe there was more to these kids than it looked like. If Harry had already been engaged in battle with this "Dark Lord" or "Voldemort" as Harry had called him, then maybe he'd seen more than he let on. Eren decided that he wanted to get more knowledge on that boy later.

"Detention, Mr Potter!" Umbridge trilled triumphantly. "Tonight at five o'clock. You can join Mr Jaeger in my office. Now, I will repeat this one more time, what Mr Potter says, _is a lie_. I can assure you that the Ministry guarantees you are not in any danger from any Dark Wizards, please, if any of you are feeling quite alarmed by this utter nonsense, then do come to my office to speak with me. Now, please continue your reading, you are wasting precious study time."

Harry got to his feet; Eren could see him trembling with the fury inside.

"Harry, sit down." Levi murmured to the boy. Harry took no notice of the warning words; he shifted his weight before beginning to yell.

"So, according to you, Cedric Diggory dropped dead of his own accord? The contest just put too much strain on him did it?" Harry's voice shook along with his fists. Umbridge looked up at him with cold eyes.

"Cedric Diggory's death was nothing more than a tragic accident."

"It was murder! I was there! I saw it happen! Voldemort killed him and you know it!" At this Eren, too, rose from his seat.

"Look, I don't know what's happened here, Professor. But I know a lie when I see one, believe me, I've learned that much over the years, and Harry isn't lying. Just listen to him! What's the point in going against an eye witness? I haven't been at this school long but there is definitely something going on around here."

"Eren," Levi warned. Harry turned to face the other teen; he seemed almost amazed that someone was brave enough to stick up for him.

"If there is a risk of an attack, would you rather be left helpless? If this "Dark Lord" _is_ coming, wouldn't you rather take precautions than go against proof and wind up dead?! Listen to yourself!"

"Mr Jaeger, Mr Potter, please come here." Umbridge rummaged through her draws before bringing out two rolls of bright pink parchment. She quickly scribbled something down onto both rolls before sealing them shut magically with her wand. Harry kicked his chair aside and strode up, his rage fueling him, Eren scowled and repeated the actions. Umbridge handed each of them a piece of the rolled up parchment.

"Now, please take these to Professor McGonagall." Harry snatched the parchment and turned away, marching straight out of the room without a word.

"Like I'd want to stay in this dump any longer anyways you stupid hag." Eren growled. Turning on his heel and following Harry out of the room, making sure to slam the door loudly behind him.

* * *

><p><strong>Hi there, thanks for reading Chapter Eight! I'm sorry about how long it took to post this but I hope this chapter makes up for it!<strong>

**Thank you _so _much for all of the reviews, favourites and follows so far! It's amazing to me that the last chapter received 19 reviews (I think it was 19 anyway...), I hope I don't sound pushy if I say that I hope we can get this story 100 reviews before it's finished! That would feel surreal to me!**

**Ya know, I'm also thinking of drawing out some of the scenes for this story too, I'm just enjoying it that much! What do you think? Also, I give permission to anyone who may want to draw something from Breaking Rules! :D**

**Anyways, thanks for reading :)**


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

From the moment Eren slammed the heavy door of Umbridge's classroom closed to the second he found himself entering Professor McGonagall's office, not once did his insides cease coiling with anger. Harry hadn't seemed much better off than he had, in honest truth, that boy had looked to be even more absorbed in his fury. Harry had practically trembled with it. Eren had seen how the younger teens' fingers clenched tightly around the magically bound parchment, his knuckles quickly becoming white as the blood flow became restricted. Eren had observed how Harry's eyebrows were draw downwards with emotion, he lips pinched to form a frightening scowl. The kid had almost seemed dangerous. Whatever it was that Umbridge and Harry were clashing over certainly seemed to have struck a nerve.

Their talk with Professor McGonagall hadn't really lasted very long and much of the warnings and subjects she spoke with Harry about weren't anything that Eren thought he had to worry over. McGonagall had simply scolded Eren before boring into Harry and exclaiming that he couldn't afford to get on Umbridge's bad side due to the fact that she's from the Ministry. Eren wasn't really bothered about all the Ministry crap, but what he _did_ want to know was what was going on with this "Dark Lord"? or "Voldemort" as Harry had called him. He, Eren, was also curious about what had happened to this Cedric Diggory person that all too many people had been going on about. All Eren knew so far was that there was a tournament or something that Harry, Cedric and a couple of other students (representing other schools) took part in, and Cedric was killed by Voldemort. Eren's information was pretty patchy. He planned on getting more information out of Harry later though; hopefully it wouldn't set him off again.

Currently, Eren was seated at the Gryffindor table, enjoying, or at least trying to enjoy, his dinner. It was getting increasingly hard to fully taste the amazing flavour of his apple pie when all he could hear were the hopeful sounding insults and such meant to provoke Harry. Eren watched as Harry's hand clenched hard around his clean cutlery, staring down at the untouched food on his plate with a seething expression. The name "Cedric" seemed to be all Eren could hear, he was in his right mind to yell until they all shut up.

"I don't get it." Harry stated in a voice that was quite clearly trembling, the raven-haired teen set his knife and fork down before continuing. Eren was rather interested in whether or not this _was_ going to turn into another shouting match, although he really was against the idea, his head was absolutely _pounding_. "If none of them believe anything I say now, why did they all believe the story Dumbledore told them a couple of months ago?"

"Harry, I don't really think they did." Hermione replied, also setting her cutlery down. Eren couldn't take it, sitting around whilst being near the centre of all this attention.

"C'mon. Let's just get out of here." Eren got to his feet and waited for Harry, Ron and Hermione to do the same before continuing on his way. All four of them ignored the stares the received as they exited.

"What d'you mean, Hermione? They didn't believe Dumbledore?" Harry asked when they were safely away from prying ears.

"Look, Harry, I know how frustrated you must feel trying to get everyone to believe you but you don't understand what it was like when you got back." Hermione informed him quietly, looking around after speaking to ensure that they weren't being followed. Her glance lingered on Eren for a second as though she was unsure whether or not she could trust him. Eren could sense this without words having to be said.

"You can say whatever you want around me; honestly I don't even know what's going on or who these people are. Trust me; I'm not going to say anything to anyone about this anyways." Hermione nodded and hastily continued.

"You suddenly just appeared in the middle of the lawn, in front of the maze, crying and clutching Cedric's dead body. You're the only one that saw what happened in the maze, Harry. All of us just had to take Dumbledore's words for it and believe what he said as he informed us that You-Know-Who was back and murdered Cedric before fighting you!"

"But that's the truth!" Harry exclaimed.

"We know it's the truth, 'Arry!" Ron joined in on the conversation. "So you can calm down, mate!"

"Sorry," Mumbled Harry as though this, biting people's heads off, was getting to be a regular thing.

Once the four of them arrived at the Common Room they were unsurprised to see that it was almost empty. The majority of the students were down at dinner in the Great Hall, with the exception being the vague number who were seemingly catching up on their homework. Personally, Eren couldn't grasp why some of these students were opting to complete pointless work when they could be down at the Hall eating that delicious food. Eren was almost sad that they didn't have that sort of food back home.

Welcoming the cosy atmosphere of the room, Eren decided to go and take a seat by the fireplace, down on the floor, where the majority of the warmth was. The brunette wasn't used to this sort of cold. The weather almost always seemed cold and dreary here, and Eren had barely made a week in this place yet.

As he made his way around Harry, Ron and Hermione, whom were giving him slightly peculiar glances, he noticed that Levi was lying across the sofa with a rather large book propped up against his legs. Eren almost felt guilty about the fact that he'd completed nowhere near the amount of work that Levi had, even though they were both working towards the same goal. Levi didn't acknowledge Eren's presence as the teen plopped down right on the rug by the lit fireplace and crossed his legs comfortably, whether or not Levi knew that they were there went unknown. Eren heard the noisy creaks and shuffling of a chair being pulled forwards as Ron and Hermione each took a seat.

"Aren't you going to sit down, Harry?" Eren asked, confused as to why the boy was just standing around rather than taking a seat and warming up.

"There's no point," Harry replied with a grimace of a smile, "we have to leave again in a minute anyway if we want to make it to Umbridge's detention."

Eren groaned loudly. "Do we have to go? I mean, isn't there some way that you can magic her mind into _thinking_ that we went to the detention so we can just stay here in the warmth?" Eren complained. Harry laughed slightly, scratching his forehead lightly in an absent minded fashion.

"If only." Was his short reply.

"Make sure that you go to that detention, Jaeger." Levi spoke up calmly, "And see if you can see your Gear whilst you're at it. You never know what's going to happen."

"Right, I'll try and spot it, sir." Eren replied. Ron looked puzzled.

"But, what's going to happen for you to use your Gear?" He asked, his eyebrows pulled down in confusion.

"That's none of your business." Answered Levi, still not looking up from his book. From the cover, it appeared to be a written about the subject of "Giant Wars" or something like that. Eren couldn't really tell, he found it rather difficult to read the cover when Levi was constantly flicking the pages.

"Right then," Harry started with a hint of awkwardness, "we'd better get going."

* * *

><p>Rain splashed heartily onto the windows in giant splatters. The sound of thunder rumbling ominously from all directions. Eren was sure that he hadn't seen rain this heavy in a long time, the summers seemed to drag on forever back home, or maybe that was just because it was quite warm outside the day he got transported to this stupid place. Eren wasn't sure, recently, all of his thoughts had been mingling together, it had all been happening since he had that nightmare a couple of nights ago. Eren didn't really want to speak to Levi about it though, there's not really much point. His Captain had more than enough to deal right now, besides, it's not like-<p>

"Eren!" A sudden calling made Eren almost jump out of his skin. Realising that Harry had probably been trying to talk to him, Eren shook his head to clear his thoughts.

"Sorry. Harry." Eren quickly replied. "I was just… thinking."

"It's okay. I zone out quite a lot too. I don't blame you!" Harry laughed lightly.

"…Yeah."

"Hey, are you alright? You don't look so good." Harry craned his neck slightly so he could see Eren's face better. Eren looked to him and smiled.

"Don't worry, I'm fine! Seriously! I was just thinking about stupid things, it's nothing I can't handle…" Eren found himself wanting to snap at the teen but instead calmed himself and spoke with a slight laugh and sped up his walking pace a little.

"I was wondering, Eren, how come you haven't written to anyone back home? Most people here write back within the first day. You should at least write back to your parents!" Harry argued, jogging to catch with Eren and almost stumbling when the other boy suddenly came to an abrupt standstill. Eren felt the smile (as fake as it was anyway) slide from his face, replacing it with a brief look of horror as he involuntarily recalled the terrible events from six years ago. Eren found that he hadn't really thought about that sort of thing in a while, but he at least presumed that the terror it gave him wouldn't still be this heart-stopping. "Oh… Eren… Look, I'm sorry. I've probably brought up a bad subject."

"It's – It's okay. It was six years ago." He murmured before continuing on his way, not really knowing where he was going but hoping that it was the right direction anyway.

"… My parents were killed when I was a baby." Harry told Eren. He wasn't exactly sure _why_ he was telling Eren this, but the words seemed to just be slipping out of his mouth today. Maybe all the homework was finally getting to his brain.

"I'm sorry to hear that. It must've been hard growing up then." Eren tucked his hands casually into his trouser pockets and found himself in a mental battle against himself so that he didn't accidently blurt anything he wasn't supposed to out.

"I guess. I mean, I grew up with my aunt and uncle and their son, Dudley. They never really liked me much." Harry rubbed the back of his neck, keeping his gaze locked with the floor. He was finally getting some information out of Eren, although, this isn't exactly what he'd had in mind, knowing something about him was better than knowing nothing. "Where did you go after they… well you know."

"I looked after myself, I mean, I- Well… Can we just drop this? I don't really want to talk about it." Eren could feel a slightly burning sensation behind his eyes. No way was he going to cry here! Besides, he had no idea what he was crying about, probably just the fact that he had absolutely no idea what was happening back home. Yeah, that was probably it. Eren faintly heard Harry apologize and mumble something else; Eren had delved too far into his thoughts to really hear the dark-haired boy clearly.

* * *

><p>"Well, we're here." Harry announced when they finally reached Umbridge's door. It felt as though it had taken forever just to get there. It probably had, at the speed they'd been walking at.<p>

"I'll knock." Eren announced, mostly to himself. As unwilling as he was to be in this position, Levi had given orders, and Eren sure as hell had to follow through with them. Although, this time, he was going to at least attempt to think things through before he goes right out and says them, for starters, Eren was planning on not directly mentioning his Gear at all. Rather beat around the bush if the situation should call for it.

"Do come in!" Came the terrible call of the toad. Eren nearly found himself throwing up at the sheer atrocity of the place! Pink, everywhere, lace, everywhere, ornaments, doilies and all things flowery and frilly, everywhere! Looking over his shoulder, he saw Harry was wearing the same horrified expression. How that Umbitch toad woman could stand to stay in the room for so long was a mystery to him. "Mr Potter, Mr Jaeger." She greeted, smiling, "Good Evening!"

"Evening,"

"Good, um, Evening." Came the two simultaneous, muttered responses.

"Now, take a seat would you both?" She gestured towards a lace-draped table, a vase of flowers sitting innocently at the centre. Two, rather uncomfortable looking, chairs were pulled up either side of the table so that when they did take a seat, Harry and Eren were facing each other. The amphibian-like professor gently placed a blank piece of parchment on the surface in front of both boys. Eren watched as Harry leant over to pull a quill out from his bag.

"Hey, Professor, I don't have anything to write with." Eren hinted. Harry looked up,

"You can borrow one of mi-" Began Harry before he was interrupted.

"That won't be necessary, Mr Potter. You see, today, you are both going to be using some rather special ones of mine."

"Oh, okay then." Eren ran a hand through his hair before shrugging off his jacket as he casually glanced about the room, seeing if he could spot his Manoeuvre Gear or not. Unfortunately the latter played to be true for he could not spy it anywhere.

Umbridge then proceeded to hand both he and Harry a rather long and thin black quill. Eren couldn't help but notice the rather sharp tip.

"We don't have any ink." Harry said as he corrected his grip on the quill. Umbridge's face stretched into a wider smile, Eren couldn't help but associate it with an ugly Titans' face. Feeling a pang of worry, Eren mentally pushed all those thoughts away as best he could again before he ended up doing something he shouldn't.

"You won't need any ink." She informed them, Eren and Harry looked to one another in confusion. No ink? How does that work? "Now, I want you both to write, _I must not tell lies_."

"How many times?" Eren asked, hoping for as small a number as possible.

"Hmm, well, let's say, as long as it takes for the message to _sink in_. Now off you go!" And with that, the frustrating woman moved away from them and went over to sit at her own desk, shifting through a tall stack of parchment. Placing the quill down onto the paper, Eren began to write out the message rather scruffily onto the parchment. He felt a sharp pinprick on the back off his right hand but chose not to make anything of it. Until he actually looked at the words he'd just written and noticed that rather than black the words were displayed in a shining crimson.

Eren heard a quiet gasp of pain and looked up at Harry; his face was scrunched up in confusion, sprinkled with light pain. Thinking it was probably just coincidental that they both happened to feel pain at the same time, Eren put his head back down and wrote out the sentence again. This time, the pain intensified slightly, he began to feel slightly light-headed…

No, he had to keep from feeling any way but focussed, how else was he going to find his manoeuvre Gear? Even if it was just a minor task on a regular basis, here, at Hogwarts, there wasn't any spare equipment to use. Besides, just as Levi had said previously, who knew when there was going to be a Titan attack? Who knew when they were going to need their Gear? That's why Eren knew that he had to get it back, so, glancing around again, Eren fought to clear his mind of unnecessary thoughts. He wrote out the words again, his hand was beginning to hurt even more now, the pain was sharp and stung, like a cut. Too much like a cut. Eren panicked as he felt a slight pull on his mind, he looked down at his hand.

"Shit!" Eren cursed loudly. Umbridge looked up swiftly.

"Mr Jaeger! Refrain from using such language!" She snapped. Eren got to his feet, cradling his right hand in his left and shifting from foot to foot. _No way_ could he as much as _risk_ becoming a Titan now! Eren didn't trust himself enough to continue writing. The wound had almost instantaneously healed, despite this; Eren still treated the hand as though it was bleeding. "Sit down!" Umbridge snapped.

"What?! No!" Eren continued with his shifty movements, not knowing what to do. Whether or not he should run.

"Mr Jae-"

"NO! You don't understand!" Eren yelled, trying not to release too much information. He really needed to have a mind like Levi's right now; he'd probably know what to do in this situation. "I _can't_ get injured! I don't know what the hell you're playing at, but I'm not gonna sit there and just slice my hand open because of you!"

"How dare you?!" Umbridge's voice raised a few octaves, "Sit down and continue writing! It is by your own fault that you are here so you will continue to write until I say that you may stop!"

"_I can't do that!_ I'm not joking! This is serious! Unless you want to be-" _crushed by a Titan_, Eren finished in his head, stopping himself before he messed up.

"Unless I want to be what exactly? Go on, do finish your sentence." The Professor's voice had returned to that _horrible_ fake tone. Anger coiled in Eren's stomach, he was aware that Harry was staring at him, but he didn't care.

"I'm leaving." Eren announced with a scowl. Umbridge gave a short laugh.

"I think not. Now sit down, and continue writing." Eren's temper was rising fast, he was beginning to contemplate transforming into Titan form just to squish the woman. He didn't.

"I'm not a child! Don't talk to me like I am!" Eren continued walking towards the door.

"_Sit down_, Mr Jaeger! You are a child, whether you like it or not and I'm your teacher, so I fully expect you to do as I say!" Umbridge spoke quickly in a raised tone; she didn't even get the chance to breathe before Eren whipped around and yelled at her.

"The only person I take orders from here is the Corporal, now shut the hell up!" Eren realised his mistake as soon as he'd said it, two mistakes in less than five minutes, he was in trouble, all three in the room now had wide eyes. Eren quickly grabbed his jacket and sprinted down the corridor, not even wanting to hear what neither Umbridge nor Harry were going to say. If only he'd been able to control his temper, maybe if he'd just gone along with the detention… No, if he'd of done that it would've been an even bigger risk. Besides, they couldn't really get very far just by knowing that Levi isn't actually a professor, could they?

A heavy sigh forced itself out through Eren's dry mouth as his heart pounded. Having absolutely no idea which way was to the Common Room, Eren just tried any random directions, hoping for the right way. After a while, Eren almost ran headfirst into no one other than the Corporal himself. Levi straightened himself up and glared at Eren.

"What's up with you, Brat?" He spoke in an annoyed tone. "Aren't you supposed to be in that stupid detention?"

"Oh, yeah. About that-"

"Listen, Jaeger." Levi completely cut Eren off with a change of subject; the teen couldn't help but notice how tired Levi appeared to be. His face was a little paler than normal and faint bags were present beneath his eyes. Now probably wouldn't be a great time to spring his mistakes upon Levi. "Dumbledore has got our room ready. But I want you to stay in the Gryffindor Dorms for tonight."

"What? Why?" Questioned Eren, puzzled.

"I want some time away from you brats." Levi spoke bluntly, "You're headed the right way for them by the way. The stairs leading to the Gryffindor tower are just around the corner." And with that, he left, leaving no other explanation or any time to ask questions. Although, Eren couldn't help but feel as if there was some other reason that Levi didn't want him in the room. There wasn't much he could do about it now, anyways, Eren simply chose to view it as him being trusted on his own for while without adult supervision twenty-four/seven. As childish as that sounded, it was the reality of being a Titan shifter in the Recon Corps.

When Eren finally arrived back in the Common Room, he threw himself back down onto the floor in the comfortable position he'd been in before. He felt slightly uneasy about the feeling of loneliness he received being surrounded by all these staring strangers. Ron and Hermione weren't there and Harry was still back in detention, so Eren didn't really know anyone else. Staring into the flickering flames, the brunette felt his heart rate finally begin to calm down; replacing it was the comforting warmth the fire offered. Eren felt his eyes become heavy. He pulled his legs up to his chest and wrapped his lanky arms securely around them, resting his chin upon his knees.

As nice as this all felt, Eren knew full well that it was only temporary.

* * *

><p><strong>Hello there! Call this déjà vu but I'm really sorry for how long this took to update! I'm honestly going to start pulling my weight and updating sooner! <strong>

**THANK YOU FOR OVER 100 REVIEWS, FAVOURITES AND FOLLOWERS! Seriously, it means so much! I know I say it every chapter but honestly, thank you all!**

**Now, next chapter, (or maybe the one after), things really start to heat up! Trust me, I've got something planned! By the way, I'm aware that the timeline has been jumbled up a little, but I'm not planning on straying too far from the Order of the Phoenix timeline.**

**Any who, let me know your thoughts on this chapter! **

**Thanks :) **


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter ten

Eren wasn't really sure about how much time had passed since he'd entered the Common Room to sit by the fire but somehow he'd managed to fall asleep. To be honest, Eren didn't even remember ever closing his eyes, he hadn't even realised how tired he was up until then. Either way, that didn't stop the hand on his shoulder from shaking him. Eren began to pry his tired eyes open; he should really get more sleep, as impossible as that was.

Lifting his head from where it was resting upon his knees, Eren's eyes followed the hand on his shoulder until he was met with a serious-looking face. It was Harry, the person that Eren least wanted to see right about now. Standing behind the raven-haired teen stood Ron and Hermione, neither of them appeared as grim as Harry, much rather confused as to why their friend was using so much force with him.

"Harry, you don't have to be so harsh!" Eren heard Hermione scold, "He was sleeping, why couldn't you have just left him alone?"

"Because he has some questions to answer." Harry shot back, he obviously hadn't told Ron and Hermione about the events of the detention yet. Finally rousing from sleep, Eren's senses became alert again. Eren shook Harry off his shoulder before standing up, he found himself acquiring a sense of pleasure upon seeing how much taller he was than Harry.

"I ain't answering anything." Eren replied, clearing his voice and making to walk away. Harry grabbed a hold of Eren's right hand as he stormed past; Eren smirked as Harry instantly drew back. His hand, although had finished healing quite a while ago now, was still quite warm to the touch, maybe even a little warmer than the rest of his body. The speed of the reaction whilst his hand had healed had probably caused some of the heat to stay in that specific area a little longer, Eren had little clue as to why but knowing it was due to his Titan-Shifter status was enough for him.

"I'll get straight to the point then," Harry said in a threatening voice as he regained his posture. "Who exactly are you and _"Professor" _Levi?"

"Harry, mate, what are you on about?" Ron questioned, thoroughly confused.

"Eren had a bit of a slip up during that detention with Umbridge. Y'see, he said that "the only person he takes orders from here is the Corporal" and as far as I know, there aren't any of those around here, so that just leaves Levi. And Levi never really acted much like a professor in the first place, and the fact that when they both got here they were covered in blood, and that they carry weapons around only adds to that doesn't it?" Harry analysed in a quick voice, Eren scoffed. He could see how clever Harry thought he was figuring all this out, but he knew that Armin could've done it twice as fast. A pang of misery sharply reminded Eren to keep his mind in the present conversation.

"Is that true, Eren?" Hermione gasped, now Eren wanted to punch someone. Thanks to Umbitch he hadn't the chance to train or spar with Levi, he hadn't really done anything expect laze around since he got here really. A couple of people nearby were watching with avid expressions, these kids really were stupid. Looking to the carpeted floor, Eren attempted to calm himself.

"Look, don't get me angry. I'm not in the mood for it." Eren voice was calm and definite, that didn't stop Harry though.

"Doesn't this mean that you're in the army or military or something then?" Harry's voice was harsh and commanding, like he needed to know the answers but was disgusted at the same time.

"Leave me alone, Harry, seriously." Oh, how he wished everyone would just clear off so he could go up to the dorms and get some sleep.

"You said that your parents were dead, I bet this had something to do with it, doesn't it?" Now he'd overstepped the line.

"Don't bring my parents into this! Besides, my mother may be gone but my father… Well I don't know where the hell he is or whether he's alive or not!" Eren snapped harshly, speaking the last part a little quieter than the rest.

"Yeah, but-"

"NO! I don't want to talk about this anymore! I don't need to be reminded!" Then, Eren looked Harry directly in the eye before turning around and striding up to the Dorms. Eren so badly wished that he could just get away from all of this and go back home, god knows what's going on back there right now. Not that he particularly wanted to think about that.

Quickly pulling his shirt and trousers off, Eren got into his pyjamas which basically consisted of a plain white T-shirt and rather loose, plaid, bottoms, Eren had asked for anything, so Dumbledore had done just that. Throwing his clothes down onto the floor beside the bed in a messy bundle, not considering that he would have to wear them again tomorrow. Eren sighed. Lying down, he closed his eyes but was greeted with nothing other than nightmarish images. Faint voices were carried up into the room as the amount of people downstairs in the Common Room grew even larger, although Eren could still distinctly hear his own name being mentioned once or twice. ***

"Harry, that was completely unnecessary of you!" Hermione scolded, instantly breaking away the momentary silence that had followed Eren's retreat. Harry turned to face his brunette friend, his face still displaying anger.

"How was it unnecessary?" He hissed, attempting to keep his voice down, there were already enough people staring as it was.

"He said that his mother is dead and his father is missing, and then you went and interrogated him, and – well put it this way Harry. I know that we said that we wanted to get a little more information on the two of them but I don't think that this is the way to go about it. I mean, for starters we have no idea what their histories are like, anything could've happened. We all saw the horrific state that they were in when they first arrived here." Hermione lectured, although Harry could tell that she, too, was intrigued by this new addition of information.

"I still want to know more about him." Ron spoke up, having kept quiet for a while as he listened to the argument.

"I do too, but this simply isn't how to do it! We can't just confront him and demand answers! You're just lucky that Levi wasn't here to see you, you never know what he might do!" Hermione agreed. Harry heavily sat down into a large armchair near the flickering warmth of the fireplace. Hermione and Ron were short to follow, both of them taking up a seat on the comfortable sofa.

"So what _do_ we do?" Asked Harry without looking up at his friends.

"Dunno. It's a tricky one this is." Ron replied slowly.

"But it's only a matter of time before Eren begins to ask _us_ questions too. You've seen how he watches magic being performed as if he's never seen it before, I'm starting to think that maybe he _has_ never seen magic before." Hermione added.

"Huh." Harry breathed, "Muggles at Hogwarts."

"Well then. I should think that you two need to start on your homework, I'll be going to get my bag ready for tomorrow." Hermione got to her feet and brushed herself off, smiling gently.

"Oh, Hermione?" Harry called as she began to walk away.

"What is it, Harry?" She turned around.

"Could you let Eren know that Umbridge needs to see him for a second detention again tomorrow? Same time as todays was."

"Why can't you just tell him yourself?"

"Uh… I-I don't really think he wants to talk to me right now." Harry said sheepishly.

"Fine, I'll tell him." Hermione turned back around and proceeded to climb the stairs, turning the opposite way as to what she normally would and headed for the boys' dorms. She'd saw that everyone else who occupied the dorm room were downstairs in the Common Room – probably finishing off homework, or just starting it in some cases. She just hoped that she wasn't going to get yelled at, to be honest, Hermione didn't particularly want to speak to Eren right now either, and she presumed that she'd feel awkward and uneasy after what had just occurred.

The ageing wooden door to the room was slightly ajar, causing a golden ray of light to beam out of the dorm and into the dulling passageway. Hermione was about to push her pale, slim hand to open the door when she heard a strange noise. It sounded like… a sniffing noise. Straining to hear properly, Hermione found that she could hear a low mumbling, it was Eren's voice she was sure of it. So who was he speaking to? All the other occupants of the dorm were in the Common Room. Curiosity got the better of her, Hermione found herself peering in. She didn't move the door any further in fear of it creaking and ultimately alerting Eren to her presence. Instead, she pressed her face into the wall besides the door and manoeuvred around until she could see Eren.

Eren was seated at one of the windows, a place where Harry often sat. His head and back leaned against the wall and he was sat with his legs drawn up and his hands draped lightly across his stomach. Hermione's heart sank as she saw his shoulder twitch slightly and heard another quiet sniff, was he crying? She was about to turn around and leave Eren to himself when he began to talk gently under his breath.

"Huh… The outside world…" He mumbled, Hermione could see a slight smile on the half of his face she could see. "I guess I got to see it before you, Armin. I guess I broke that promise."

Hermione covered her hand with her mouth to be sure that her breathing wouldn't be too loud as to signal her presence.

"… We were going to explore it all together. So I'll wait for you. I'm not gonna go and explore too much if I can help it… You should be the one here, you and Mikasa." Eren paused to wipe his eyes and take in a shaky breath.

"Even more… It's people like Petra who deserve to be outside… the people who died because of me… God… I-I'm a monster…" Eren trailed off. He began to mutter other things under his breath too. Hermione couldn't catch everything he was saying. Instead she decided to turn back and head to Harry and Ron. It was best if they didn't go in the dorm for a while. Eren clearly wasn't himself, maybe he was homesick? Yet at the same time, Hermione thought, he didn't exactly seem homesick, it was more like he was missing the people back home. What exactly _was_ it like back home? And what did Eren mean by the people who'd died because of him?

Hermione approached her friends slowly.

"Oh… Hermione did you-" Harry stopped short when he saw Hermione's thoughtful face. "Hermione? What is it? Don't tell me he had a go at you!"

"No." She shook her head, perching on the edge of the sofa in between the sprawled textbooks and parchments that Harry and Ron had littered around. "Just… take my advice and don't go into the dorm for a while, okay?"

"What? Why?" Ron questioned, lowering his quill and parchment to his lap.

"I don't think Eren wants to be bothered at the moment." Hermione replied simply, staring down into her lap.

"Yeah, but why?" Harry pressured as if it was golden information.

"Well… Eren's a little upset at the moment. I-I was about to go into the room when I heard him crying. I looked through a crack in the door and saw him sitting in the window, where you sometimes sit, Harry." Hermione glanced over at Harry and saw that she had his full attention, same with Ron. "He was talking to himself. Saying that he'd broken a promise to someone called "Armin" about seeing some "outside world" or something like that."

"_Outside world? _What's that mean?" Asked Ron. Hermione shook her head and continued her account.

"That's not the strangest part though. Afterwards he started muttering about how people had _died_ because of him. Then he called himself a monster. After that I left because it was a total invasion of privacy and also because I couldn't understand anything he said afterwards."

"Where the hell did Eren come from?" Harry pondered. Hermione shook her head again, immersing herself back into possibilities.

"We'll go to bed a little later tonight then. Give 'im time to calm down I 'spose." Ron went made a move to get back to work, but then realised that he couldn't concentrate any longer and scowled. "'Mione? Do me a favour and help me with this work, would'ya?"

"Fine." Hermione drawled out, she rolled her eyes and took the quill, ink, and parchment from Ron, setting it down on her lap. She rested the piece on a text book and began to write, having taken the hint that Ron basically wanted her to do all of it for him.

By the time that Harry and Ron finally decided to pack away their work and head to bed, it was almost ten o'clock and everyone else, except from a couple of rapidly-scribbling students who were _still_ trying to finish their work. Despite the time, Harry didn't really feel particularly tired, rather the contrary to be quite honest. Harry couldn't stop thinking about what Hermione had reported to them regarding her spying on Eren, although he still couldn't piece together exactly where he came from or what his history was like – it was getting to be quite frustrating. Harry had been suspicious when Eren and Levi had first arrived here, but now he was even more so.

Walking into the dorm, Harry saw that there was still a candle lit near Eren's bedside; he probably hadn't been asleep long. Ron stumbled around the side of his bed before quite literally falling into it, kicking off his shoes as he went. Harry, shaking his head at his friends' actions was about to change into his pyjamas when an unnatural glint caught his eye from Eren's bed. It was that key again. It must've fallen out of Eren's shirt when he rolled over onto his side or something. Upon closer inspection, Harry saw that Eren was also wearing some sort of amulet; it was fancy but rather small. A red crystal framed in silver, attached to a delicate looking chain, was it his mothers'? Maybe it wasn't, but Harry didn't feel any reason to get worked up about it. Instead, Harry backed away and got changed before climbing into bed. He slowly lay down and suddenly felt a surge of tiredness – his eyes closed and he fell asleep almost instantly.

* * *

><p>Levi awoke with a start. He felt sweat beading all over, his clammy hands outstretched as though attempting to stop something from happening. His eyes were wide and fearful, an expression he didn't often use, and his mouth was gaping. Had he been shouting? Recognising that he must've had a nightmare, Levi ran a hand through his hair, sighing. He looked around, almost startled, when he then remembered that there were no other people in the room. This was the room that Dumbledore had prepared for he and Eren. They each had a separate bedroom, but only one of them was currently occupied as Eren was sleeping in the Gryffindor Dorms.<p>

The floor was freezing under Levi's feet as he got out of bed to make it again, he saw his hands tremble slightly. What had he been dreaming about? Either way, he knew that he'd been having nightmares quite frequently but not regularly. Nor was he like Eren, who'd awake screaming and crying and thrashing. Although, Levi couldn't be sure what he was like in his sleeping state – so he decided that for just this night, he'd be alone. That way, it didn't matter what he did. Besides, it might be nice for Eren to be surrounded by people his own age in an environment like this. Shaking his head, Levi gave a "Tch" of disapproval, deciding that he was being too soft.

Grabbing his clothes, Levi made his way out of his small room, closing the door softly behind him, and entering the main room. Dumbledore had been so kind as to give them a shared space to work in. They had a fireplace, a dark coloured sofa – not unlike the one in the Gryffindor Common Room – and a large, comfortable armchair of the same material. There was also a two, rather tall, book cases (which Levi found himself unwillingly admitting that only Eren would be able to reach the higher shelves) and two desks which sat side by side in-between the bookcases. And, luckily for Eren, there was a large window seat with a pleasant view of the Hogwarts grounds.

Making his way through the spotless room, Levi headed into the bathroom, which again was rather small, to take a quick shower and get ready before heading down to breakfast.

On the way to the Great Hall, Levi found himself walking amidst many students yet again; it was a rather uncomfortable experience. As he rounded the corner to enter the Hall, Levi saw that Eren was already there, so were Harry, Ron and Hermione. Was he late, or were they all early? Levi strode up and took the seat beside Eren, who was seated with his head on the table and his arms folded around it so his face was hidden. Surprised when the clacking and clunking of his Gear didn't alert Eren to his presence, Levi sharply elbowed the teenager in the ribs.

Jumping, Eren raised his head, Levi realised that he must've been asleep as his half-lidded eyes looked towards him.

"What's up with you?" Levi asked, leaning across the table to grab a plate and some food. Eren shrugged.

"Feel like crap." Eren answered honestly, stretching his arms out above him before returning to a slouched position. Levi chose to let the lack of respect in the youngers' answer slide for now, he looked tired and fed-up. It looked as though he and Eren were in the same boat, as much as he hated to admit it. Eren was so out of it that he barely flinched when an angry looking girl stormed up to where Harry was sitting and began to interrogate him.

"You just had to get detention today, didn't you?!" She yelled, "Five o'clock, Friday! Couldn't you've gotten detention at another time, Harry?!"

"Wha- Oh!" Harry scrunched his eyes closed and hit his head with his hand, "Quidditch Try-outs!"

"And now he remembers!" The girl said sarcastically. Levi watched with a neutral expression. Not really bothered about the goings on. Seeing that Eren was dozing off again, Levi decided it'd be best to take him back to their room; it wasn't like they had anything better to do. They couldn't train, they had no reason to attend any lessons today, and they had nowhere to be. Normally, Levi would have been very strict and unforgiving if Eren was still half-asleep in the morning, normally, he'd tell the boy to suck it up and get moving. But they weren't doing "normal" things right now. They were, and had been for the past week, living in a rather relaxed style opposed to life back home.

"… What is it, sir?" Eren mumbled into his arm as Levi nudged him in the side.

"Let's go, brat. You're still half-asleep and we ain't gaining anything by sitting here." Levi said sternly, getting to his feet and grabbing his plate. He'd got a selection of toast and bacon for him and Eren to share. Eren yawned and stood up, following Levi out of the busy Hall. Levi could still hear that girl ranting at Harry, which reminded him about Eren's detention. "Did you find your Gear at that detention yesterday?"

"No, sir. I couldn't see it." Eren replied, rubbing the back of his head nervously, "But I can try and find it again today, Harry told me that Umbridge wants to see me tonight when Harry goes for his second detention."

"Good. Make sure you find it, Jaeger; you never know when you might need it." Levi told him, "Here, this is our room."

"Why are we going in here, sir? Don't we have to go to lessons?" Eren questioned, following Levi through the door.

"No. You go through there and get some damned sleep. I'm going to get some more books from the library. I'll be back soon, do not make any mess. Got that?"

"Yes, sir. Thank you." Eren nodded in gratitude, choosing not to turn down the demand. Eren knew that whilst he had the chance to rest, he should take it – it's not like he'd be any use in this state anyway.

* * *

><p>Time flew frighteningly quickly. By the time Eren awoke, it was past mid-day. He quickly jumped out of bed and got changed into his clothes again for the second time that day. He made a move to exit his room but then swiftly turned around and made his bed, picking up his discarded pyjamas from the floor and folding them to the best of his ability before exiting. Eren hadn't really taken much notice of the place when he first walked in, but now realised that it looked a lot like the Common Room he'd grown to like. He saw Levi seated at one of the two desks to the left of him. Said man turned around and watched Eren for a few moments before speaking.<p>

"Finally up I see, you lazy little shit."

Eren looked down and apologized, suddenly feeling rather guilty. "Sorry, sir. I didn't mean to sleep for so long."

"I guess Titan-Shifters need more sleep." Levi said bluntly, turning around to continue working.

"But I haven't transformed in a while now."

"I know. Just get over here and do something useful."

"Okay, sir." Eren walked forwards to take a seat at the desk beside Levi's. He quickly looked at the selection of books before him, then at the plate sandwiches resting untouched on the corner of his desk that was nearest to Levi. His stomach gave an embarrassingly long growl.

"Eat." Levi commanded. "The house elves brought these up at lunch but you were still sleeping your ass off."

"Thank you." Eren thanked before taking a couple of the sandwiches and trying them out, trying to see which one he liked best, opening a book to read whilst he went.

Before he knew it, Eren realised that it was time to leave. A glance up at the large clock face on the wall told him that there was ten minutes left until five o'clock. Eren brushed the crumbs off the table and the books, ignoring Levi's glares as the crumbs scattered across the floor, before grabbing his jacket and heading out. Luckily, Eren could still remember where Umbridge's office was, how he remembered that he didn't know.

As he strode through the empty corridor, Harry almost walked right into him, having just turned the corner that connected this corridor to another. Eren wasn't sure whether he wanted to talk to Harry or not after the interrogation he received. Fortunately, Eren wasn't the one who made the decision.

"Look, Eren, I'm sorry about the way I spoke to you yesterday. I shouldn't have said those things."

"I guess it's okay." Eren shrugged. "I'm over it."

"That's good then." Harry replied awkwardly. The two of them continued to make insignificant small talk until they reached their shared destination. Harry was the first to enter this time. Eren couldn't help but wonder why exactly Harry seemed so eager to go inside – Eren sure as hell wasn't.

"Good Evening!" Professor Umbridge smiled, as if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred the night before.

"Evening." Harry and Eren replied sullenly, Eren glanced around the room in an attempt to find he Gear again but all he saw were disgustingly pink and flowery things, not to mention her collection of moving kittens on china plates. Maybe it wasn't in this room after all; maybe Umbridge had moved it to be sure that he and Levi couldn't find it. Eren noticed Harry kept glancing shiftily towards the window. Curious, Eren could vaguely see figures moving around on the field outside.

"Um… Professor Umbridge?" Harry spoke up in a timid voice.

"Yes, what is it?" Her voice was sickly and revolting.

"Well, I was wondering if you could do me a favour. You see, the Gryffindor Try-outs are today and-"

"Ah, yes, Mr Potter, I should have known that you would want to escape this for that. Well, I am sorry but it is by your own fault that you are here, so you are going to have to stay here and serve your detention."

"But-" Harry opened his mouth to protest but was sharply cut off again.

"No, Mr Potter, now please take a seat and begin to write whilst I speak with Mr Jaeger." Umbridge said firmly. Eren continued looking at the small figures outside and noticed they seemed to be holding what looked like… broomsticks? He could faintly see three rather tall hoops on either side of the field, one of the figures suddenly flew up in front of them, surprising Eren completely. Flying broomsticks?! What else did these people have? And was that the Quidditch thing Harry had been talking about? It looked admittedly interesting.

Eren pulled his gaze away from the window as Umbridge began to talk to him; he at least had to make it appear as if he were paying attention.

"Now, I should rather like to know why-" And then, something all too familiar happened and Umbridge was cut off.

Blinding light seared Eren's eyes, shaking the entire building in a way that caused Eren and Umbridge to stumble over, and Harry to almost fall from his chair. Heavy footsteps and deep growls and rumbles filled the air, terrified screams sounded from below.

Eren's heart thudded painfully as he bolted from the room, unaware of Harry following him, his hand inching closer and closer to his mouth as he grew closer to an exit. Eren was unaware of everything around him as he focused his mind. It was now or never, Umbridge had his Gear, so this power was all he had. Rounding another corner, Eren realised he wasn't going to have enough time to get down to ground level. He pushed himself up into the window, harshly throwing off Harry's hands, and he jumped.

This was it. It had finally happened. The Titans were in.

* * *

><p><strong>Hello again, first of all, I'd like to thank you all for your support on the story so far! It's unbelievable to me just how many people are enjoying this! So thanks so much for that!<strong>

**Secondly, I apologise for the wait, I was planning on updating within a week, but homework prevented me from doing so. I'm trying my best to get these chapters out as often as I can! :)**

**Also, I really am sorry if anyone appears a little OOC, I have tried to make the characters as in-character as I can.**

**As always, thank you, and I hope you're enjoying the story so far! :D**


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

Levi scowled as he got back up from his place on the carpeted floor, having just been knocked down by the sudden shaking off the castle. A deep rumbling noise filled the air; heavy footsteps stomped in the distance. He knew what this was. As if the blinding light that suddenly shot through the windows – temporarily replacing the sun – wasn't enough. He was lucky that he still had his Gear. If he'd have given it in to Umbridge then he would have been absolutely helpless, as much as he hated to admit it.

Quickly looking over at Hermione, he saw that she were okay, dazed, but otherwise fine. Good, that meant he could depart without feeling guilty of leaving injured students alone. Levi had been in the Common Room when the all-too-familiar event began, he'd just been gathering up some of the books that he had left behind when he found himself being thrown, humiliatingly, to the ground by unnatural sources.

"What was that?!" He heard Hermione squeal, a student, Neville, shook his head, his face shocked and pale. It felt as though only moments had passed before the same thing happened again and everyone was once again greeted by the carpeted floor. The monstrous roar that swept through the air was silencing. Levi's heart sped up at the familiarity of it.

"Eren!" He yelled, not sure how far away Eren actually was, although judging by that racket he was close by. Swiftly checking over his Gear to be sure it was all in working condition; he decided that now would be the best time to put it into action. "Shit, why now?" Levi cursed, why now, of all times?

"Levi, what's happening?" Hermione grabbed at Levi's arm in a failing attempt to turn him around. Levi faced the brunette teen with a scowl,

"Get to safety! There's no time to be dawdling about!" He ordered, now wasn't the time to play the role of a professor, now was the time to be who he was, a soldier.

"But-"

"NO!" Levi pulled away, "Just get to safety, we're under attack!" He added hastily before breaking into a run, he just needed to find an exit to the building as quickly as possible before things got out of hand. A sudden intrusion of thought almost brought him to halt altogether. How had he not noticed before?! That light, that only occurred in the event of a Titan-Shifter transforming! This was bad. If the Titans outside were Shifters… Well, it would be likely that there'd be many casualties, both student_ and_ staff casualties.

Forcing himself to run faster, Levi realised that he was being followed. What was it with these kids?! He didn't have time for scolding now though. Another angry-sounding roar that had most definitely been produced from Eren's Titan informed him wordlessly that he needed to get to the site quickly.

Forcefully grabbing hold of the controls for his Gear from their holsters, Levi sprang into action. This was it, the real fight was about to begin.

* * *

><p>The sheer unexpectedness of the blast rendered Harry thoughtless, speechless, for a few moments. The searing light from the unconfirmed source blazed in his eyes like lightning, leaving him temporarily blind. Harry was harshly thrown into the edge of the wooden table as the building shook with unyielding tremors, winding him as the oxygen left his lungs consequent to the sudden impact. Within moments, Harry watched as Eren got back to his feet and sprinted out of the room faster than Harry had ever seen any human move before. Naturally, he followed. Harry listened to the foul curses stringing from Eren's mouth in continuality.<p>

Confused, Harry attempted to get closer to Eren, wanting to know what was going on and why and where he was racing so recklessly. Why was he bringing his hand to his mouth like that? If he wasn't careful he'd bite himself! Harry almost skidded straight into a wall as Eren unexpectedly took a sharp corner. All of a sudden, Eren threw himself into a window, effectively smashing the glass and almost toppling straight outside then and there. Harry gasped as he wrapped his sweaty fingers around one of Eren's trembling arms and attempted to pull him back.

"Get off me!" Eren growled in a low, threatening voice. Harry was taken aback by the sheer venom lacing the words; his voice was almost animalistic as he fought against him.

"Eren, get back in here! What's going on?!" Harry yelled, surprised at Eren's strength as he managed to break loose and shuffle forwards, teetering on the very edge of the jagged frame. "EREN!" But it was too late. Eren had ignored him completely and jumped. Scrambling to the window, Harry heart thudded in a painful manner against his rib-cage, he could feel his pulse thrumming in his ears. What the hell was Eren doing?!

Although what happened next was even further unforeseen. Harry watched as crimson blood flew away from Eren's form as he hurtled down towards the ground. Striking light once again burned his emerald eyes, another round of trembling coursed through the building and he fell to the solid ground. Then a guttural, purely animalistic, roar of what could only be described as anger broke free, a humid steam wafted up through the smashed window and obstructed Harry's view for a few moments.

"Eren?!" He shouted desperately, was he dead? Surely nobody could survive a fall quite like that. Once the steam had mostly cleared away, the giant, humanoid, form of a monster stood, breathing heavily. Its body was muscular and naked, its head almost reaching the window.

Harry didn't know what to say or what to think or what to do.

In all his years alive he'd seen some weird and frightening things, but right now, he was sure he needed to clear one of the top spots. The monster slowly turned around to look at him. Its dark coloured hair fell into its face, partially obscuring a pair of staring green eyes, and it had large, elfish, pointed ears and seemingly no cheeks. The lack of the latter was made obvious by the unobstructed view Harry had of the beasts' full mouth of teeth – the sight was a little disturbing to say the least.

Harry was sure that he felt his heart stop completely when it looked directly at him. He felt physically sick. Was that Eren? Was _this_ what he had meant when he dubbed himself a monster? As much as he didn't want to believe it, Harry couldn't help but acknowledge the possibility.

Loud stomping noises sounded from a place that he couldn't see from the window he was at, the creature before him seemed to lose control at those sounds. Its eyes narrowed dangerously along with its pupils, its head twitched for a moment before it threw its giant head back and roared again - its hands twitched by its sides as though to grab a hold of something.

As it, whatever _it_ was, moved away, Harry felt a surge of adrenaline rush through him. He needed to know what was happening; Hogwarts had never been under attack from anything before (excluding the Troll from his first year) as far as he could remember. Dumbledore's various spells and charms that were cast across the school prevented that from happening. Sprinting down the next few flights of stairs, a gust of atypical wind forcefully blew his dark, scruffy hair into his eyes, causing him to nearly trip over his own two feet. Looking up, he saw the small figure of a man fly overhead. Levi. It had to be. He was the only person in the school with that ridiculous Gear. Harry swiftly caught up behind Hermione, and they both, along with many other students, swiftly made their way outside. Though throughout the short journey, not once did they stop to talk, it seemed that this was one of those situations where you just had to see for yourself before indulging in conversation.

Some people screamed, other people froze, a couple fainted.

Giant creatures, similar to the one Harry had seen materialize where Eren had fallen, were lumbering around, trying desperately to catch the witches and wizards that would have been at the Try-Outs. The cluster of people was rapidly drawing closer and closer as they flew towards them on their broomsticks. Ron slipped, pale-faced, onto the ground as Harry ran closer, approaching the peak of the hill that looked down upon the Quidditch Field. Now that he was closer, Harry could see that there were about eleven of the monsters, not including the rogue one from earlier.

A small figure he recognised as Levi flew around the tallest Quidditch Hoop using his Gear; he unsheathed his swords and hurtled towards the nearest giant, spiralling around it at breakneck speed. Harry watched in horror and slight awe as Levi sliced effortlessly through the flesh of the being, hacking large pieces from the ankles before cutting through the neck. Harry noticed that as soon as Levi cut through the back of the neck the giant suddenly became still, unmoving, dead.

Within seconds, Levi flew towards another giant, giving it the same treatment. Meanwhile, the rogue giant was doing things a little messier. Harry's stomach churned nauseatingly as the rogue ripped an arm of a giant that was only slightly smaller than it was, the bones cracking and steaming in protest. Blood splattered down onto the grass, drenching it in crimson. The rogue then proceeded to punch and kick the now one-armed giant to the floor stomping down on its head repeatedly, Harry was wholly thankful that he could not actually see the trampled head.

Steam rose from the three fallen bodies in reams, rising up into the air with the stench of decay close behind it. The eight remaining giants all appeared deformed, a lot more so than the already dead and the rogue. One had enlarged brown eyes that looked to take up three times as much room as normal eyes would; another had triangular shaped head, with a heavily protruding nose and little hair. Others had body parts which were far out of proportion, for example one had an outsized head but a rather short and stocky body.

Nausea began to override Harry's senses as the violent battle continued, the rogue giant ripping its opponents to shreds, literally, and Levi slicing and dicing the flesh; moving at too fast of a speed, to see anything, in that much detail, but the glint of his weapons at times. _Yeah_, Harry thought, _definitely the military_.

* * *

><p>Balancing himself temporarily on the head of a fallen Titan, Levi stopped for a few moments to catch his breath. He may be humanities strongest, but he'd also had a longer break than he would have liked from training. It wasn't like he was lacking too greatly though, no, Levi was still having little problem piling the Titan death toll up. However, he did have to keep glancing over at Eren to be sure that he wasn't going rampant. Eren couldn't quite be trusted yet, and by the looks of how unnecessarily violent he was getting, that was a real possibility.<p>

Levi took a deep breath and silently readjusted his grip on his controls. Thick splatters of blood coated the handle, making it slick and difficult to keep in his hand; he wished that it would just hurry up and evaporate already. The remaining Titans were ugly, to say the least. They were out of proportion with themselves and had the general air of Abnormals. At least, from the experience so far, he could safely assume that none of these were Shifters. A Seven-Meter Class Titan suddenly wrapped its too-long arms around itself and made a sprint for Levi, its jaw's slack and teeth clashing together every time its feet stomped too hard. A deep growl strung from its ungodly mouth as it suddenly dove towards him. Definitely an Abnormal.

Though before the Corporal could take the beast down for himself Eren got to it, throwing himself onto its back and forcing it down onto the muddy ground. Levi watched with a neutral face as Eren punched and punched and punched at it until the disgusting thing was unrecognisable, Eren's Titan snarled into its dead face, making a show of it all, saliva dripping grossly from his open mouth. The sound was abruptly cut off when two more Abnormals latched onto Eren, biting into his flesh and pulling it away – eating him. Levi had almost forgotten that Titans commonly viewed Eren's Titan a prey as much as they did a regular human.

"Shit, this isn't good…" Levi murmured as he fired the grapple hooks of his Gear in the direction of the shorter Titan that was grabbing a hold of Eren's right arm. Gas shot out of the back a little more weakly than it had previously, he'd started off the fight with too much power and now his gas supply was running out. Now this really wasn't good. Levi skidded across the damp ground in an arc before the wire pulled him up into the air and towards the Titan. Quickly raising his blades, he sliced through the nape with practised ease, but not before the foul thing could yank the lower half of Eren's left arm away.

Before long, the other Titans, all Abnormal, had sprung upon Eren, all crowding around in hope of devouring at least a morsel of flesh. It was like the incident with the Female Titan all over again, the way that these Titans were going at Eren. Levi knew that if he was to save Eren he was going to have to be quick.

Senses on high alert, Levi slimly dodged a kick from one of Eren's Titan's huge legs; it seemed that Eren was also trying to get the Titans off him. A bright flash of light then flashed past and hit one of the Titans, although it wasn't like any other light that Levi had seen, instead, it was like a single flash of lightening. Levi leaped back in surprise as his hair was almost singed. Whipping his head to the side, Levi saw Dumbledore, Snape, McGonagall and a handful of other professors that he couldn't remember, nor care to either, the names of. Dumbledore flicked his wand and another bright beam shot out of the end of it, bouncing off the back of one of the Abnormals. It didn't even leave a scratch. He just had to kill a couple more Titans and then Eren should be able to handle the rest.

"Wait!" Levi yelled over to the Professors. "I'll take care of them!"

"But-" Dumbledore was about to interject with a deep, booming voice, when Levi cut him off.

"NO! This is my duty! Besides, I can't have you hurting Eren!" Then, as if in autopilot, Levi set to work, he'd wasted enough time already. A cry of pain sounded from Eren's Titan form as another arm was ripped away, Eren was doing his best to fend them off but these weren't like the Abnormals they'd previously faced. These were stronger and some were less human-looking and more beastly. They still had the same hunger for human flesh though.

For some unexplained reason, the Abnormals were paying a strange amount of concentration to devouring Eren, it was odd but Levi didn't have time to overthink it as he sliced through the nape's of two separate Titans in turn, leaving Eren with a single limb that didn't have a Titan on it. To finish it all off, Eren then thrust himself forwards and head-butted one of his attackers so hard that it left a slight dent in his own Titans' skull, whilst it was reeling backwards, Levi moved in to kill it. From there, the job was quickly finished off and soon, Levi was standing off just to the side of Eren's Titan's mutilated body and surrounded by evaporating corpses.

Surveying the damage, Levi noticed that these bodies were evaporating a lot more slowly than expected, and a layer of blood was still coating his Gear. Charming. Hearing yells, he turned his attention back to where all the students were gathered, some were cheering, others were ashen-faced, and the select few with weaker stomachs were vomiting. Harry, Hermione and Ron belonged to the group whom were standing with shocked expressions. By that point, Levi began to feel the adrenaline wear away and he was left tired, exhausted, and panting – he somehow managed to keep his regular composure.

Realising that Eren had yet to emerge from the nape of his fallen Titan; Levi quickly used the last spurts of his gas to hoist himself onto its back. The Titan body was lying face down and quickly beginning to evaporate. Ignoring the heat, Levi waited until he could see Eren before grabbing him and yanking him out, severing some of the more stubborn connections with his blades. Securely keeping one arm wrapped across Eren's chest, Levi hauled the unconscious teen across the body he once occupied before lowering him down to the ground. He was met with Dumbledore's solemn face as he jumped back down to the ground himself, Levi simply sheathed his weapons and hoisted Eren over his shoulder as best he could, grimacing as he did so.

"I think he's gonna have to go to the Hospital Wing again." Levi stated bluntly. Dumbledore seemed lost for words, everyone there did. Levi blinked and shifted Eren's weight on his shoulder. "C'mon, this kids' heavier than he looks."

Levi knew that he was in for a long conversation, but Eren needed to go to the Hospital Wing first, that was the top priority for that moment in time. He watched as the teachers tried to usher away all of the students, telling them that "everything's alright" and "there's nothing to see here". Levi gave a small "Tch" and began carrying Eren across the field himself, it was slightly difficult due to their height differences but Levi knew that he was stronger than he looked.

Although, as hectic as his thoughts should have been right then. Levi only had a certain few thoughts floating around, one of which was a conversation he needed to have and whether or not to go through with it. Because if these were the kinds of Titans these people were facing, they were going to need help, and by helping here, they could discover the true heritage of the Titans. Levi hummed thoughtfully as he decided, they were going to need reinforcements and he knew exactly were to get them.

It was just a matter of whether or not it would work. Besides, he and Eren were here, so why couldn't others?

* * *

><p><strong>Hello, I'm back with a new chapter! I apologise AGAIN for how long it took me to update, I got a little busy this week as it was my birthday on the 29<strong>**th****. **

**But anyways, I've noticed that you guys seem to have many questions regarding events in the story, I would love to answer them but I think it would be more fun to learn things as you read this story. So don't worry, your questions will all be answered as we get further in!**

**Again, thanks for all the support so far! I can't believe there are over 200 followers so far! I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I look forwards to hearing what you thought of it. :) **


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

It felt strange to think that less than an hour ago he was up and fighting Titans. In fact, it felt pretty unreal – and that was saying something, as fighting Titans could more or less be classed as his job. Right now, the only reminders that the brief battle had occurred were the facts that Eren was laying in the bed next to his, unconscious, in the Hospital Wing, and the constant flurry of not-so-discreet murmurs being casually flung about in the corridors as the students went about getting the last bits and pieces of their school day finished before heading over to their Common Rooms.

Levi sighed and slowly brought his head up to view the grand ceiling. He blinked as his dark hair fell into his eyes. Drawing his thin eyebrows down and forming a regular scowl, Levi realised that his hair didn't quite feel right. He brought a slim hand upwards and ran it through the short locks before scowling even deeper. Mud. There was _mud_ dried upon the strands, clumping small – almost unnoticeable – sections of his hair together. How had he not noticed this? Giving a "_Tch_" of dissatisfaction, Levi pulled his hand back down and looked over at Eren's bed.

He'd much rather be going to take a shower and wash the grime off of himself right now than be sitting here – Eren probably wouldn't awake until tomorrow, and despite Dumbledore and Madame Pomfrey's beliefs, Levi really _didn't_ need to rest up. He was used to this, he'd tried to tell them both this as they ushered him into the pristine white sheets of the hospital bed. Glancing down, Levi saw his boots staring back at him. He really wanted to clean himself up right now. Madame Pomfrey had offered to do it for him with magic, but Levi didn't really trust magic all that much. Although right now, he was wishing that he'd taken her up on her offer rather than sit there looking like an unkempt mess of a human.

Just as the irritated man was about to leave, the sharp clicking of stern footfalls alerted him to another presence. A strict-looking women strode towards him, her piercing eyes boring into him as she approached. Even though Levi could see that she was trying to attain her composure, it was almost obvious that she were wary of Eren when she cast a couple of short-lived glances in his direction. Levi internally smirked when she purposely walked as far away from Eren's bed as she could, as though he'd spring up from unconsciousness and attack.

She cleared her throat with a slight air of importance as she came to a standstill near the foot of his bed. "I don't believe we have formally met, Levi, but I am Minerva McGonagall, head of Gryffindor." She paused and narrowed her eyes ever so slightly, in a way that may have been easily over-looked, had you not been looking carefully. "After the highly unexpected and preposterous… events, that have recently occurred, Dumbledore requests your presence in his office. The Headmaster and the Head of Houses are currently holding a meeting regarding both you and your… your friend."

"Jaeger is my subordinate." Levi corrected, "Not my 'friend'.'"

"Yes, well, either way, you still need to come with me." McGonagall said sternly. Levi's facial features fell into their regular, hard-to-read, arrangement as he slipped on his boots and jacket. He left his embellished Emerald cloak behind as he knew that he'd be coming back for it. There was no point in dressing up fancy just for a meeting he didn't particularly want to attend in the first place; nevertheless Levi still brought all of his Gear along – especially now that he knew for sure that Titan attacks were an occurrence here.

The tightly-lipped professor strode swiftly down the corridors at a brisk pace however Levi had absolutely no problems in keeping up. Luckily, all of the resident students were back in their respected Common Rooms. McGonagall and the other Heads of Houses had ushered the wide-eyed students away from the earlier scene and back to where they were supposed to be. Levi presumed that the teachers, after doing thorough registry checks, would want the students all safely kept within their Rooms; keeping the day as a whole as normal and regular as possible.

By now, all of the adrenaline and extra energy had drained away, and so Levi couldn't help but notice just how cold the empty passageways were. At least he knew that the seasons here were pretty much in sync with the ones back home – winter had been on its way there too. Yet, the winter in the Walls didn't seem quite as cold as it was here, in Scotland. McGonagall made a sharp turn around a sudden corner, moving paintings adorned the walls. Levi internally shuddered in disgust. Although intriguing, the way that the people in the paintings moved and spoke as though real people was unnatural and creepy. It didn't seem right, in his head at least, to have such useless items such as those. He was sure that there were plenty of other _decorations_ the faculty could have chosen from.

A rather bold painting stared back at him, beady eyes following him along, muttering insults under its breath; if it even breathed that was. The professor stopped once they'd reached the spiralled staircase which Levi had become so accustomed to travelling. It seemed he was in that office asking for one thing or another more often than not. That wasn't actually the case though, Levi understood that he only really went to Dumbledore when it was necessary, such as to ask for clothing, which was obviously a necessity. Levi stood back as McGonagall quickly muttered the password. The two then climbed up onto one of the steps on the aged staircase as they both waited to be escorted to the top by the enchanted stairway.

Eventually, Levi found himself within the untidy confines of Professor Dumbledore's oversized office. He looked about himself to see who exactly he was facing in this 'meeting'. Professor Dumbledore stood in the centre of all the other teachers, who seemed to have arranged themselves in a slight semi-circle without quite noticing. Then, standing on either side of Dumbledore was Professor McGonagall, whom had only a few seconds ago walked around him to stand with her fellow colleagues, Professor Snape, Professor Sprout, Professor Flitwick (a rather small professor whom he had yet to be fully introduced to, as well as professor Sprout) and, rather unfortunately, Umbridge. Levi had been wondering where Umbridge had run off too, the coward had probably been hiding away somewhere. He knew full well that Umbridge wasn't a Head of House, so what the hell was she doing here?

Dumbledore stepped forwards, out of the circle, with his hands clasped together and a stern expression upon his face.

"Do you know why it is that we are holding this meeting, Levi?" He asked slowly. Levi looked straight at him and replied evenly;

"No, Professor. Although, I have reason to believe that it has something to do with our most recent occurrence."

"Yes." Dumbledore agreed, "I understood that you were a soldier from another land, although I was not quite expecting what I saw when you so courageously charged into battle. Our magic has little to no effect on those beasts, and yet you, Levi, managed to effectively take them down with ease. Tell me; is everyone like you are within these Walls?" Dumbledore questioned.

"No. I carry the title of 'Humanities Strongest Soldier'. But that's not to say I value myself over other soldiers." Said Levi honestly.

"I see… Well, anyways, I think we should move on to, with no disrespect intended, the centre topic of this meeting." Dumbledore moved on. Levi saw the professors behind him fidgeting slightly, other than Umbridge and Snape, of course. Crossing his arms over one another, Levi stood, leaning into one hip slightly, and listened.

"First of all, Eren Jaeger. What is he, exactly?"

"What do you mean? You can see what he is. He's a human being." Levi replied dully.

"That doesn't testify for why Mr Jaeger appeared out of one of the beasts!" Umbridge spoke up. Her high pitched voice going straight through Levi, it almost sounded like an invitation for him to throttle her. He decided that he was going to need to use quite a bit of self-control if he were to get through this, listening to that old toad.

"Eren is a Titan-Shifter." Levi countered, glaring at Umbridge hatefully, although keeping his composed face.

"You mean a Half-Human?!" She all but whispered. Venom coated her words.

"Dolores!" Dumbledore scolded. It was clear that he was hoping for this meeting to stay civil and composed. Umbridge's mouth snapped shut, Levi could see a new kind of hatred bubbling over, and he didn't like it. Not. One. Bit.

"Jaeger isn't a Titan-Shifter by choice. Nor is it natural. I don't think I need to delve into too much detail, but I don't know much about the history of it all myself. Apparently, it was his father who injected him with the serum that would give him these powers, shortly after the Shiganshina was taken over and Wall Maria was breeched by Titans." Levi filled in. He knew that they'd want to know as many details as they could so it was probably better to get it over with now. He wasn't so sure that Eren would agree.

"Can he control this 'power'?" Dumbledore took another step forwards, he was now a few short paces away from Levi.

"You want the honest answer?" He began, and then continued without really waiting for an answer, "mostly. Eren has partially transformed by accident once whilst under my watch. There is also one recorded time when Eren attempted to kill Mikasa, a member of family, during a mission. Since then, no further incident has occurred. When Eren does lose control, it's best to stay away from him. His anger is so far always directed at the Titans, but I think it's better to be careful than dead." He recounted. The professors' eyes had all widened slightly at that piece of information.

Dumbledore cleared his throat, "Hmm, but what -"

"Look, I'm sorry but if you're looking for our life stories, I think I'll be leaving." Levi cut him off. He didn't quite want to tell them all every detail of their lives, or the history of the Walls or whatever it was that they wanted to know.

"Excuse me, Sir, but I don't think you should be taking up that tone with the Headmaster!" McGonagall snapped. He was right to predict her as strict after all.

"Well then could we please get down to business? I have my own questions."

Dumbledore looked over the faces of his colleagues, "We truthfully wanted to discuss the matter of whether or not it is safe to have Eren among the students, we have to keep their safety a high priority."

"Providing that I keep a close watch over him, I doubt Jaeger will cause any trouble. This is the closest the Brat has ever come to a normal life, I don't think he wants to abuse that," Levi began, "besides, he's bent on seeing the destruction of the Titans and will do all in his power to protect another human."

"I see… well… what do you all think," Dumbledore turned to face the other professors, "their stay will only last a short while longer, I have found a way to make a strong enough Port Key to send them back, I will just have to esco -"

"Wait." Levi cut in. "I have one of two requests before that decision is made. First of all, Jaeger and I are going to have to stay a little longer. Since we've been at Hogwarts, we have realised that there is a good possibility that we could potentially discover the where those Titan bastards came from. If we can do that, then that's two saves in one. Both Hogwarts and our home will be free."

"How _much_ longer?" Umbridge cut in again, her pouched cheeks puffed out in anger, tinted red. Levi couldn't understand what her problem was.

"I don't know. It could be months, it could be years." Levi's answer was blunt yet truthful. Umbridge spluttered in a quite the rude manner, McGonagall stared at her with disgust.

"We cannot keep you two in this school for _years_ whilst you go and hunt for answers you'll probably never find! This isn't a hotel!" Umbridge snapped. Levi took a firm step forwards, glaring wholeheartedly at her.

"_This_ is the best chance we have! And I'm not going to let some ugly asshole like you screw it up!"

"Please. Could we both calm down and continue this conversation in an orderly fashion. Dolores, the final word on whether or not the two of them can temporarily reside here will come from me!" Dumbledore managed to keep his voice level and strong. "Providing the other members of staff agree, I have no problem with allowing you the use of this school. In the end, you will also be solving a problem for us, as well as yourselves, so consider it an early payment. You said you had two questions. May I ask what your other inquiry was?"

"If given your permission, I would like to bring over a small squad. I already have in mind who I think would be best suited for this job. I took into consideration the fact that a school will not want a group of adult soldiers patrolling through, so I've written out a list of the soldiers who performed best during the most recent mission. The majority of them were part of Eren's training division, the '104th Squad"." It was true that Levi had taken different factors into consideration, although he'd also decided it best to include Commander Erwin, and, despite his hesitation, Hanji.

"I presume that you'd want to use the school as a training ground at times, too?" Dumbledore inquired.

Levi briefly gave a single nod, "Yes." Dumbledore sounded out a thoughtful hum.

"Well… we certainly have more than enough grounds for it. As long as the students' daily life isn't disrupted, I should think it will be fine. Do you have the list with you now?"

"But Headmaster!" Umbridge shot out.

"If you are to continue interrupting could you so kindly wait outside, Dolores?"

Umbridge's face turned an even deeper shade of red as she was no doubt humiliated. Then, she drew in a deep breath and smiled sweetly in a way that made all who may be so unfortunate as to gaze upon her gag.

"Very well." After which she proceeded to exit in a calm and orderly fashion. If he wasn't suspicious at the quick turn-around in emotion before, Levi certainly was now. He knew what she was thinking. He could positively tell that that woman was planning something – no doubt he and Eren would probably be on the receiving end. Levi then took his chance to reply, pulling out a folded piece of parchment from his trouser pocket. This was what he had been doing to pass the time – writing a list up of all who he believe should be brought over here. After writing said list, he found that he was still forbidden to leave and so put the '104th Squad' into rank order. Levi had felt a little stupid at the time of writing it, but throughout he had reminded himself of the greater good that would come from this.

"Here." He handed over the parchment; Dumbledore read over it, Levi could see the names backwards through the thin scrap.

"_Mikasa Ackerman – Age: 16 – Grad Rank: 1__st_

_Reiner Braun – Age: 18 – Grad Rank: 2__nd_

_Bertolt Hoover – Age: 18 – Grad Rank: 3__rd_

_Jean Kirstein – Age: 16 – Grad Rank: 6__th_

_Connie Springer – Age 16 – Grad Rank: 8__th_

_Sasha Blouse – Age: 17 – Grad Rank: 9__th_

_Krista Lenz – Age: 16 – Grad Rank: 10__th_

_Armin Arlert – Age: 16 – Grad Rank: Outside Top Ten_

_Ymir – Age: 18 – Grad Rank: Outside Top Ten_

_Erwin Smith: Age: 37 – Commander_

_Hange Zoë: Age: 32 – Squad Leader"_

Levi only knew the ages of the '104th Squad' through Eren, occasionally he'd blurt out that it was someone's birthday during the day. Other than that, he knew from the light-hearted chatter the group would sometimes have, competing in pointless banter over who was the oldest – although this only happened the during weeks after the Female Titan events, when all had mostly quieted down and they didn't have any serious cause for concern other than protection from the Titans, which may attack at any given moment.

Dumbledore passed the list down to professor Flitwick, who glanced over it. Dumbledore opened his mouth to speak; Flitwick unintentionally beat him to it, not taking his eyes away from the list.

"May I ask… where are four, five and seven? Or were those Graduates not fit for this job?" He asked innocently enough. Levi quickly filled him in, there was no point in hiding it, he needed to build some form of trust with these people if he were to stay here. But that wasn't to say he'd ever trust any of them completely.

"Graduate number four; Annie Leonhardt – she was revealed to be a Titan-shifter; the Female Titan. She killed countless numbers of our soldiers before being taken down by Eren. Leonhardt is currently in a crystalline state underground. I think that rules her out. Number Five; Eren Jaeger, he's already here. Number Seven was Marco Bott; he died of an unknown cause during battle. I've been told that his body was discovered although half his face and upper body were missing." Levi only knew the circumstances surrounding Marco from a time that Eren asked sadly how Marco had died, only for Jean to recount how he found him. Levi just happened to overhear.

"O-oh. I am terribly sorry…" Flitwick stuttered, handing the list to a pale-faced Professor Sprout.

"Don't be. Now, could we have permission for this?" Levi asked.

"Won't it be… dangerous, having soldiers here?" Snape questioned. Eyeing the list before handing it to McGonagall who then passed it over to Dumbledore once more. Levi moved his gaze to direct it at Snape.

"I can assure you all now; no harm will come to any of the students. Providing everyone has a place to eat, sleep and shit we'll stay out of the way."

"Where will they all stay though, Dumbledore?" Professor Sprout asked, her eyebrows drawn together in confusion. Although, what Levi was confused about was why they were all taking it so well. He was near positive that more of a fight would be put up – this wasn't just like asking to borrow some sugar after all.

"Oh, I am sure that we'll find somewhere for them. I assume that we can get a room or two together before they arrive." Dumbledore replied almost happily.

"Now there is just the matter of what we will inform the students." Flitwick hummed.

"Well, I don't see the point in keeping everything a secret now. Nearly all of the student body probably saw that attack!" McGonagall huffed.

"Yes… I can understand where you're coming from, Minerva." Dumbledore sighed lightly, "We may as well simply inform the students of what is going on. We shall have to introduce the people once they arrive and see how things go from there, it would probably be safer for the students to know this anyways."

"I suppose that's sorted then." Levi broke in, crossing his arms once more over his chest. "How are we going to get them all here, though?"

"You'll see, Levi. Although, I am not going alone. You shall have to come along with me – Eren too, if he's awake and healed by Sunday." Said Dumbledore.

"When is Sunday?" Levi asked, not even completely sure what the date was currently.

"The day after tomorrow." Snape drawled, almost as though talking to a student. Levi gave a loud "Tch", sending a sharp glare in Snape's direction but otherwise ignoring him.

"That brat probably won't be awake by then. I'll bet he'll spend until Monday sleeping his lazy ass off." Levi muttered. In all honesty, he wasn't entirely sure when Eren would wake up, but he knew that it could take anywhere from a few hours to over three days. And even if he did wake up pretty soon, he'd probably be out of it for a little while. "If that's all then, I'll be going to get my things and head to my room."

"If there is nothing left to say," Dumbledore looked about the professors, waiting to see if there were any overhanging matters they wished to bring up, "I guess it would be alright for you to leave now. Thank you for your time Mr Levi."

With a sharp nod, Levi turned on his heel and exited the office.

* * *

><p>It was starting to get cold now. The sun was setting, creating a well-blended palette of orange and golden hues among the stained clouds. Thick branches shed large leaves, which fell to the earthy bottom as natural and serenely as possible, painting the ground in crispy and curled foliage, awaiting the impending doom of being ruined and trod upon by heavily-footed animals, Titans maybe.<p>

The horse beneath her whickered softly, moving smoothly along the beaten path adorned with autumnal beauty. Her eyes threatened to spill with tears which she refused to shed. If she cried now, it would be as good as admitting defeat, and there was no way that he could have just _vanished_ like he did. No. Eren had to be somewhere. It didn't even seem a plausible explanation in her mind that he could have possibly been eaten. Her dulling, red scarf gently fell further away from her neck, exposing it to the bitter, almost wintery wind. She brought a hand away from where it was locked around her beaten, leather reins, and carefully pulled it back up to lay against her neck – burying her face in the warmth and hope it provided.

"Mikasa!" She heard someone yell. The voice wasn't coming from too far away, so she recognised it almost instantly. Hearing it through the deep and unwanted thoughts she was receiving. "Mikasa!" Armin tried again. This time, she turned to face him. Armin gently kicked his horse on, so that she and he were side by side, although on horseback.

"Armin." She offered as her greeting. Looking over at him properly, the blonde appeared tired. She couldn't blame him though, she felt how he looked.

"Did you find anything?" He asked, his voice devoid of hope. Mikasa shook her head, no longer facing him. "It's… It's been almost over a week now. It doesn't sound that long but it feels like they've been gone for months…" Armin trailed off, unknowing of what to say next.

"We _will_ find them." Mikasa assured, her voice steady and stern. Armin looked over at her, rather quickly, and then returned his gaze back to the path weaving between the giant trees ahead. They had been out searching for Eren and Levi every day since the day they went missing. No-one knew where they had gone or what had happened. Although the opinion of them being taken down by a Titan wasn't a strong one. Levi was Humanities Strongest and Eren was part Titan himself. But it still remained a possibility – a possibility that was quickly becoming more and more likely.

Mikasa brought the scarf further up around her face, the soft, folded edge just tickling the underside of her nose. "I know we will."

* * *

><p><strong>Hello! Thank you SO MUCH for sticking with the story! I know I took an absolute AGE to update but I had to do my Work Experience for school last week and found myself with no time to write. I am really sorry about that.<strong>

**Because of my infrequent (and probably frustrating) time gaps between updates, I decided to create a Tumblr account for Fanfiction purposes. That way, I'll be able to let you know when I'll be updating and what's going on and stuff. My name is: sloths-gone-wild **

**Let me know whether or not that was a good idea!**

**Also, THANK YOU FOR THE UNBELIEVABLE SUPPORT OF THIS STORY! I know that I say it often but if means so much! Thanks again! I can't wait to see what you thought about this chapter. :)**

**(PS: I know there are different spellings for the names; I used the manga for reference though. Also, I did my research on their ages, for Hange and Erwin I found roughly how old they were and then added a year on for the purpose of this Fanfiction).**


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen

It was difficult to sleep that night to say the least. Once all of the gossip had made its way around the school, and all of the various rumours had been spread, the student body had sombrely quieted down - especially upon the realisation that the attack could happen again at any given moment. Not even Ron's brothers, Fred and George, had so much as cracked a joke that night, neither had they attempted to subtly bribe any First-Years into purchasing their newest creations, the 'Skiving Snackboxes' and such.

Harry had stared up at the ceiling of his bed for the majority of the night; too many thoughts swirling around in his head for him to even so much as get a wink of sleep. He awoke the next morning after a few hours of dreamless sleep and to a dull aching in his scar. He fully expected the day to be hectic with many unanswered questions and ridiculous statements floating around. Although, Harry had caught wind of a rumour that nobody was allowed to speak with Levi, not that anyone had seen him anyways, and nobody was allowed to go and visit Eren in the Hospital Wing. The only way people got in was if they really needed to, of course, Madame Pomfrey would never neglect a student in need.

Although Harry couldn't help but question _why._ Why had Levi kept himself away from the student body and why were no students to see Eren? Surely he couldn't be that seriously injured. Harry had seen the brunette being transported into the Hospital Wing, he had a few bruises and faint marks stretching across his face, but other than that he was fine. Well… except for the fact that Harry had witnessed the teen emerge from the back of one of those beasts' neck. If they were any guidelines to go by, Harry would think himself right in believing that Eren really wasn't human. Or at least not fully, after all, he was part of the magical community; he knew that there were indeed half-humans.

Saturday really did pass him by a lot quicker than he imagined it would. The only positive side of the whole ordeal, though, was the fact that now at least no one was talking about _him_. In fact, the only people that _did_ speak about him that day were Hermione and Ron, and that was only when they were discussing the theory Harry had come up with about Eren. Overall, Hogwarts was still shocked from the attack of those beasts, and the pure gruesomeness and violence of the fight to really seem too lively. Everyone was on edge, especially when the teachers' private words leaked out into the student body and suddenly they all realised that another attack was a strong possibility. So, as expected, no one was allowed outside for the time being. The only time permitted for them to do so was when they were travelling to different parts of the castle, and even then there were teachers stationed about the area. From a couple of places, Harry could see thick vapour rising from the Quidditch field as the giant, fallen bodies seemingly evaporated into nothing.

Before he knew it, it was night again, and the only memorable event that had happened throughout that day was the recounting of Ron's experience. Harry repeatedly thanked whatever deity above for Ron being safe; he could've easily been killed in that battle. It was sad really, Ron should've been celebrating the fact that he'd made it onto the Quidditch team, yet here he was, recounting a terrible event that could have possibly lead to the end of his life.

Harry was beginning to understand why Levi and Eren were the way they were now. Because something told him that they weren't from around here. He didn't know why, and he didn't know how, but he _did_ know that _that was_ _not their first battle._

* * *

><p>Sunday rolled around rather slowly. Although that might have just been because Levi had absolutely nothing to do, Eren still hadn't woken up, and he was waiting with wearing patience to go back to the Walls. Levi couldn't exactly say that he was excited because that would just be the wrong emotion to pin to what he was feeling, it was more like just wanting to get everything over with. In his head, that phrase sounded a little too harsh for the situation, so he decided to just let it go and focus his energy on something else.<p>

Throughout the course of Saturday, Levi had spent his time inside his dorm. He had tried to complete a little more research but had found that increasingly difficult. Levi wasn't one to get distracted, but with all the added stress of his situation as a whole, he reasoned with himself that it was natural. Afterwards, he'd gone to Dumbledore to question if the extra rooms had been sorted out yet. They hadn't. So that became his next task. After going down to the kitchens to get a coffee made for him by the kind and obeying house-elves, Levi had made his way back to his dorm only to find that it no longer looked like how he'd left it. Walking inside, he noticed that the general area was a hell of a lot bigger, along with more doors. They were all going to be staying in the _same_ area? Great. Absolutely great. This was going to be fun. Therefore, to distract himself from his own thoughts, Levi had spent the remaining time of his Saturday cleaning. He made sure that the entire space was up to his liking before taking a break and surveying his handiwork.

Then, after going over to see whether or not Eren had woken up, he'd made him way to bed, with the conclusion that Eren wasn't going to be able to come back with him tomorrow.

Eventually, after a long and dreamless rest, Levi found himself waking bright and early to a rarity outside his window, sunshine. At least it wasn't raining. He sighed softly as he sat up, the thin white covers falling back. He craned his neck slightly to look out of the window and saw that it was still probably early in the morning. The sun didn't look as though it had been up too long as remnants of golden colour still hung about in the sky.

Levi stretched his arms up over his head, feeling the bones in his back pop back into place. He ran a hand through his soft hair before pushing the covers away and getting out of bed. The floor was freezing beneath his feet, making him wince as he made his way across the small room to where a pile of clean clothes were laying. Levi had, after much argument, allowed the house-elves to clean his military uniform. He didn't really like the prospect of having all those dirty hands clutching at his clothes; he'd quite wanted to wash them himself. Gathering the neatly folded uniform into one arm, Levi then opened his door, which was directly next to the small dresser he took his clothes from, and went to the bathroom to shower.

Once he deemed himself presentable and had gone back to make his bed Levi proceeded to make his way to the Great Hall for breakfast. It wasn't very far from his dorm, so he didn't encounter any students along the way. Besides, he gathered that the majority of them would still be asleep, considering it was a Sunday and they didn't have any lessons. The hallway was empty, and the Great Hall shared the same fate. He carefully pushed one of the doors open a little further than it already was and looked around. It was that early the food hadn't even been served yet. The tables were all plain and barren rather than inviting and full of food.

Levi gave a short hum before turning around and instead making his way towards the kitchen. Students weren't allowed in there, so he'd get a pick of what he wanted, as he _was_ permitted to be in there. The house-elves all greeted him with bows and quiet 'Good Morning, Sir's as they went about with their jobs. He wondered whether or not the frail-looking creatures, actually liked serving people, more than once Levi had felt slightly guilty for making them do things for him. But it wasn't really any of his business, so he stayed out of it, they seemed happy enough.

Before long, Levi was seated back in the Great Hall with his breakfast, sitting right at the very top of the Gryffindor Table. He'd eaten half of it before a couple of Ravenclaw students wandered in, setting heavy books and writing utensils on the their table. They sent a couple of wary glances in his direction, which he chose to ignore, instead continuing to eat his toast and beans - casually sipping at his tea every now and then. It wasn't too long before Hermione walked in unaccompanied. He heard her making her way up to the table; Levi didn't look up from his food until she took a seat just off being directly opposite him. Judging by her bag, she had been planning on studying, although now she seemed to have something else on her mind.

"Levi." She began, not looking too sure of where she was going to go with the rest of her words. Levi set his knife and fork down on the mostly empty plate, and took a sip of his cooling tea before answering.

"Yes?" He replied. Hermione furrowed her brow and shifted in her seat slightly.

"What… What _happened_?" She asked. Levi set his goblet down and pushed his plate to the side so he could rest his elbows on the table.

"Titan attack, I believe."

"But how did you fight them like that? I haven't ever seen anyone move like that! Harry was right, wasn't he? You _aren't_ a professor, are you?"

"No, I'm not. I'm a corporal and a captain." Levi answered truthfully. He knew that there really wasn't any point in hiding it now, after all, it had been agreed that Dumbledore was going to reveal that much about them anyways once the others were here. That reminded him, he should really get moving. Although the time wasn't specified, Levi assumed it would be better to be early than to miss Dumbledore's unspoken preferable.

"I've never seen anyone wearing a uniform like your though, were exactly are you from?" Hermione continued curiously, although still clearly on edge and notable nervous, it seemed that she couldn't suppress her nature.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." Levi said bluntly, rising to his feet and stepping back from the table. "Now, if you'll excuse me I haven't got any more time for brats, I have something important to do."

"W-what?" Hermione stammered, "But what-"

"Ever hear of 'curiosity killed the cat', Granger?" And with that simple exchange, Levi exited the Hall.

* * *

><p>"I am <em>not <em>touching that!" Levi snapped, "I don't care how magical that shit covered boot is!"

"I assure you that it is only mud, Levi. Now please just take a hold of it and we'll be on our way." Dumbledore spoke calmly, despite Levi's utmost refusal to take hold of the portkey. Levi scowled as he took another glance at the ghastly object. In the professors hand was a singular, mud covered, repulsively smelling boot. There was no way in hell that Levi would ever touch that! Dumbledore had told him that it was a 'portkey', something that would transport them inside the Walls, but what Levi didn't get was why it was a manky old boot!

"Why couldn't you use something cleaner?!" Levi argued, clearly repulsed.

"You see, these portkeys look this way for a reason!" Dumbledore countered, still not raising his voice, "It's to be sure that Muggles, that is to say the non-magical folk, won't think of touching them. If you didn't have to, you wouldn't touch this key, and therefore both parties would be safe, it makes sense really."

"Fine. What do I have to do? Just grab hold of it?"

"Yes, that is all."

"Okay, I'll touch it. But I'm not doing this often, so are you sure this is going to work? Have you got the coordinates all worked out?" Levi asked, staring at the boot still. He was doing this for the good of humanity; he had to keep reminding himself. Dumbledore nodded and smiled, motioning for him to come closer. Levi stretched his hand out and cringed as it came into contact with dried mud. Almost instantaneously, Dumbledore activated the key and they were sent spinning and spiralling into nothingness.

Levi received a strong sense of déjà vu, at least now he knew what that peculiar object in that Abnormal Titans' mouth was, it must have been a portkey. How it managed to get in the Titan's mouth, he didn't want to know. Before long the movement began to subside and Levi was deposited roughly onto the dirt path before the large HQ. Swallowing down the unexpected nausea that came with travelling this way, Levi got up from his place on the ground and brushed the remnant dirt off of him. Levi felt slightly humiliated at the fact Dumbledore was staring down at him, he obviously hadn't lost his composure.

"We're here." Dumbledore stated. Levi glared up at him.

"No shit." He muttered, making a move towards the large castle. He only hoped that Erwin hadn't gone back inside the Wall, because if he had then this whole feat would have just been made even harder. Dumbledore followed closely behind, looking around at the area – although there really wasn't all that much to see.

"I thought you resided within giant Walls."

"We do. But you aren't going to see any of them from here. This is our HQ so this is all you're going to see." Levi filled him in, taking quick strides towards the castle.

This whole place looked rather pleasing to the eye. Dumbledore had been expecting something more tragic and desperate looking, maybe the rest of their world was like that, but this area certainly wasn't. Large trees surrounded a giant, castle, ivy and other greenery clinging to the brick work and making such a pleasant visual image. Dumbledore made sure to keep up with Levi's pace, staying within a close proximity to him. He reminded himself that he had no idea what these people were capable of; therefore, he was going to need to appear as non-threatening as possible. Not that he was very threatening to start with. Once they were inside the HQ, Dumbledore looked about himself, the interior was vaguely similar to Hogwarts, although here the passage ways were obviously lit of candle light, judging by the wax-covered holders lining the walls.

"We'll head to Erwin's office first. He's the commander." Levi informed him. Dumbledore hummed under his breath and nodded in agreement, even though he knew that Levi wasn't looking at him. Another thing Dumbledore had noticed was that there must be a time gap between Scotland and here. It must have been at least mid-day here, maybe later, it was hard to tell. The two of them continued their way towards Erwin's office in silence, surprised at the lack of soldiers. Sometime on their journey, Levi had pulled his hood up over his head as far as it would go, to mask his face under the shadows, Dumbledore presumed it was so that no-one would recognise him and stop them. However that didn't prevent the strange looks Dumbledore received when the occasional soldier did walk past. He was guessing that the only reason he wasn't being stopped was because of the fact he was with Levi, even if the other soldiers didn't know it _was_ Levi they could clearly see that he was in uniform.

Levi had muttered that they were almost there as they turned a corner when Levi was suddenly almost knocked down to the floor. His hood fell away from his face, and Dumbledore didn't even have time to as much as think before the culprit came into view. A tall woman wearing glasses and a smile big enough to swallow her face grasped Levi's shoulders and shook him roughly.

"Levi!" She yelled a lot louder than she should have. "You're alive! I mean, I never doubted that you were dead for a moment, but everyone was losing hope, but I never listened to them! Where have you-"

"Hange!" Levi snapped, prying himself out of her iron grasp. Hange let go, pulling her hands back before her attention snapped over to Dumbledore.

"Ooo, and who might you be?" She asked, taking a step closer. Although, before he could answer she stepped back again, her smile faltering. "Wait… Where's Eren? He's not dead is he?!"

"No, he's not dead, Shitty-Glasses, he's perfectly safe. I need you to come with me, though, it's important." Levi continued walking. Hange stood still for a few moments before jogging to catch back up, walking alongside Levi's side. Dumbledore didn't quite know what to think of the hyperactive woman. He also couldn't help the odd feeling that momentarily gripped his insides at how openly she'd asked if Eren was dead. The wizard wasn't sure whether or not it was just Hange that spoke like that, but he bet that death was something common around here. That much became clear when he noticed the lack of people in the passage ways, for a HQ it seemed a lot less busy than he'd anticipated.

Dumbledore stopped as they came to a standstill outside a large door, Levi knocked once and waited for the reply before stepping inside, Dumbledore followed him and Hange inside. The man within the spacious office was seated at a large desk, laden with stacks of paper work. He seemed to have been filling them out, until he saw Levi. He pushed the chair away from the desk and stood. The blond-haired man looked a little disbelieving, his blue eyes widened slightly. So this must be Erwin, Dumbledore thought.

"Levi? You're alive!" Erwin greeted, smiling. "I was starting to think that you'd been killed, I should have known better, you are Humanities Strongest, after all."

"Yes, Jaeger is alive too, although he isn't with us, he's back where I was."

"What do you mean, Levi?" Erwin asked, sitting back down in his desk chair. Levi walked up to the desk, Hange following. Dumbledore lingered behind for a few moments before closing the door and walking forwards to join the others.

"I don't really know how to explain it. Look, I know this is sudden but I've got some news you'd like to hear." Levi continued. Erwin leaned forwards.

"And what would that be?"

"I have discovered a way to find the origins of the Titans. Something other than Jaeger's basement. We'll need to take some people over there, I've got a list of the preferable soldiers," Levi took the folded list from his pocket and handed it to his Commander. "If confirmed by you, we, along with the soldiers I have selected, can uncover the truth about the Titans."

"Might I ask, Levi? This sounds like such a big mission, why have you mostly selected our youngest? Why not other, more experienced soldiers?" Erwin inquired.

"Well, they'll be going to a school, I presumed that they wouldn't want to be overrun with adults, so I chose the best young soldiers we have. This group have performed exceptionally well in the past, especially the Ackerman girl."

"A school, you say? What has a school got to do with anything? If there were secrets in any of the schools, I'm sure that we'd of found them by now."

"This school isn't inside the Walls."

"What?" Erwin raised his eyebrows; Dumbledore could see the confusion and disbelief on his face. Placing a hand on Levi's shoulder, Dumbledore nodded to the shorter man, asking to be given permission to explain. Levi nodded back; Dumbledore removed his hand as Levi looked back to Erwin.

"Here, Dumbledore is the professor of the school, he'll explain." Levi handed the talking over to him.

"Hello, my name is Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, and I am the Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Although you are probably wondering how magic could possibly exist, I assure you that it does. I will come back to that in a moment, for what really matters here is the information regarding the Titans.

"Now, Titans have only recently begun attacking our school, within the last year I believe. Our magic does not work on them, so the only think we could think to do, was to send them over here. I and my Staff at Hogwarts thought this land to be uninhabited at the time. Although, when Levi and Eren appeared out of nowhere, we found that we were wrong and therefore ceased sending Titan's to this area. However, we didn't send many over here to begin with. I have reason to believe that whoever is responsible for sending the Titans to Hogwarts may very well be the creator of the Titans altogether as well as the one who sent them here in the first place.

"We believe, that with your cooperation, we could vanquish the Titans for good. So I do hope that you will consider Levi's offer. That is all. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have." Dumbledore finished, choosing to explain as much as he could in one go rather than answer too many questions and leave Erwin with fragmented information and many doubts more than he'd have this way.

Dumbledore continued to look at Erwin, awaiting the Commanders unavoidable questioning, however, his voice wasn't the one he heard when someone finally did break the silence.

"_Magic_ is _real_?!" Hange cried, Dumbledore wasn't sure whether or not the woman believed him. "Well, I am a scientist I'll have you know! Magic is an improbable power!"

"Ah, well, how do you explain this then?" Dumbledore asked with a smile as he extracted his wand from within his cloak and set to work levitating a tall pile of Erwin's paper work.

"H-how do you _do_ that?" Hange swiped a hand above and underneath the floating pile, as if trying to find some invisible string. Erwin hummed as Dumbledore set the papers back down, tucking his wand away again.

"Magic, my friend, that was magic."

"Is this real, Levi? Magic I mean." Erwin asked.

"Yes, Eren and I have spent a week at Hogwarts. As unbelievable as it all is, we were accidently transported there by magic after almost being killed by an abnormal Titan that had come from Hogwarts." Levi told him. Erwin looked down at the desk top.

"Well… this is certainly interesting. I never thought the concept of magic to be real… I assume that magic will be used to get to this school?"

"Yes, we will be using a Portkey. That is also how we got here from Hogwarts." Dumbledore said, his voice gentle.

"And Hogwarts is outside of the Walls?" Erwin seemed to be considering the idea.

"Yes, in Scotland, this is part of the United Kingdom, which in turn is part of Europe."

Erwin hummed. "This is quite the mouthful to swallow, isn't it?"

"I understand that it may be rather hard to take in at first." Dumbledore agreed. With a sigh, Erwin ran a hand down his face.

"If Levi hadn't confirmed this, it would have taken a lot more to get me on board with the idea. However, I am willing to take part and allow the soldiers you suggested, Levi, to take part in this mission. Especially as there is that chance of discovering the true nature of the Titans. This could turn into something great or something terrible, either way, if you think we should go along with it I'll trust you." Erwin got to his feet and began to move around his desk. "I don't think I'll be able to go with you on this mission. I'm needed here. However, I will stay at Hogwarts with you for a couple of days or so, to assess the situation and see what's happening for myself. I want to be sure you'll all be treated well. Is that okay, Dumbledore?"

"Indeed. When you're ready, I will escort you back here."

"Levi, Dumbledore, Hange, you go and gather the soldiers, bring them back here. I'm going to speak with Mike. He may have to step in as Commander for the few days I am gone." Erwin explained. He then headed out of the door, leaving it open.

"You heard him, let's go and get the brats." Levi sighed. Turing sharply and leaving the room. Hange skipped up to his side, shortly followed by Dumbledore, who made sure to give them space but stay close enough to them that he wouldn't get mistaken for an intruder, despite the fact he technically was.

Dumbledore was surprised at how the Commander had taken the situation, Dumbledore had been sure that there would be many more questions than there were, maybe there still would be, he didn't know. As Erwin had said, it was the fact that Levi had supported the concept of magic and agreed that it was real, that had him believing. Dumbledore was sure that it Levi hadn't been there, it would have been a lot harder to persuade him. Dumbledore only hoped that the others wouldn't cause too much trouble. They were Eren's friends, so he was sure there'd be questions about him, but other than that Dumbledore hoped everything went smoothly – this was a difficult and complex situation as it was.

* * *

><p><strong>Hello and thank you for reading! I really can't believe that I am already over 200 reviews! I never expected this! Thank you so much, in return, I'm going to try as best I can to see this story through to the end!<strong>

**Also, I know I said this previously, but I'm planning on attempting some drawings of one or two of the scenes, if I get the time. So, I was wondering if you have any suggestions, 'cause I can't decide! If you do, please let me know! :D**

**Thanks again for reading, and I hope this chapter was alright! :)**


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

It was midday, lunch. The food held no taste, no flavour; it was like eating lumpy paste. Although, it wasn't at all because of how the food was prepared, it was rather due to the lack of a presence. Eren still hadn't been found and, despite her belief that he was out there somewhere, Mikasa was almost starting to believe that he wasn't coming back. Mikasa lifted her spoon out of the porridge-like gloop before allowing it to drop back into the bowl again with a wet thudding noise. From the corner of her eye, Mikasa noticed Armin glancing nervously at her. He wasn't really eating much either. As she glanced up at him, his gaze quickly fell back to his bowl. Mikasa watched as he twirled the dulled spoon between his fingers, keeping the end of it in his food.

"What happens if we don't find him?" Armin whispered just about loud enough for Mikasa to hear. She turned her head to look back down again; Mikasa slowly pulled her chipped mug of water towards her and carefully wrapped her hands around the sides. She looked down at her own rippling reflection as she spoke.

"I don't know."

"Everyone else is giving up," Armin continued, his voice weary and uneven. "They're all losing hope and telling us that Eren's never coming back, that he and Levi were devoured by the Titans. Personally, I can't even begin to picture the Captain going down that way, but… I guess in the end, he was only human."

Mikasa clutched her mug tighter, "I don't think that Eren's dead. I'm sure that I'd be able to feel it if he were, yet I don't feel anything like that now. He has to be out there, somewhere, and I will find him, and I'll bring him home."

"I wouldn't count on that." This time it wasn't Armin that spoke up, this voice was deeper. Mikasa recognised it as Jean immediately. "The search parties are starting to be withdrawn now, it's been a week and we have lots of other things to be thinking about besides finding Eren and Levi."

"I don't care what anyone else does. My only priority right now is finding Eren." Mikasa kept her gaze locked with her water as she replied. Why was Jean butting in anyway?

"Look. I know that Eren's important to you and all but you can't keep searching for him forever! Now that Levi's gone you're practically the strongest soldier we have! Humanity needs you!" Jean exclaimed, taking a cautious step forwards. Mikasa turned to face him.

"Humanity needs Eren!" Mikasa bit back, "Eren is our last-"

"Captain Levi!" Connie cut her off with a surprised shout. Mikasa shifted her gaze to glare at Connie. She noticed his eyes were staring straight past her and towards the general direction of the door. It wasn't until Armin, who was sitting opposite her, gasped in shock that Mikasa directed her attention to the doorway.

The door was open, despite Mikasa not having heard it do so, and in its doorway stood Levi. There was also Hange and a tall, elderly man dressed in strange robes, but they weren't priority right now. The old material of her scarf caught on the wooden table, causing it to fall from her neck and land in a loose pile on the offending table itself, the only reason that simple snag had caused it unravel itself from her neck was because she hadn't been wearing it very tightly in the first place. However, rather than take the time to wrap it back around her neck, she continued her quick strides towards where Levi was standing, not even giving the man a chance to speak.

"Where's Eren?" Just the tone of her voice was warning enough to reply. She watched as Levi narrowed his eyes.

"Safe." He answered bluntly, Mikasa begun to feel as if her body was a cornucopia of emotion right then. She wanted to cry at Eren's safety, she wanted to angrily punch Levi for not taking care of Eren, frustration, anger, happiness, hope. Yet her face remained a mask, not leaking any evidence of how she was truly feeling.

"Where is he? Take me to him!" Mikasa ordered. Mikasa, having expected Levi to at least make a move to escort her to Eren, felt even further annoyed when he stayed where he was.

"You'll be going to see him soon. You all will. We have ourselves a mission to go on." Levi almost growled out. Her insides boiling, Mikasa narrowed her eyes and glared wholeheartedly at Levi. Her mind was churning with all kinds of insults that she could quite happily throw. But that would be childish and immature so she bit her tongue and held back.

"Who's the old guy?" A sudden voice cut through all the tension. Of course, it had to be Connie. Trust him to go and do something like that. Coming to think of it, Mikasa actually wondered who exactly the bearded guy was. She'd never seen him around before and she'd sure as hell remember someone dressed like that walking around. The tall elderly man then looked briefly to Levi and Hange (who was remaining unnaturally quiet although had a rather eerie grin plastered to her face) then, once receiving a small nod of approval from Levi, went ahead and began to speak.

"I am Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." The man introduced. Mikasa looked to him with disbelief. What the _hell_ was this senile old fool going on about? Why the hell had Hange and Levi brought the idiot in here? What was going on? Behind her, Mikasa could hear Connie and Sasha snickering. At least some people were reaping amusement from this. However, Mikasa was not finding this the least bit amusing. Whilst she was here, having her time wasted by whoever the hell this man was, she was wasting time finding Eren. Before she could speak up, the complaints started. Of course with so many people in the room there were bound to be different viewpoints on just about everything. Seeing someone out of the corner of her eye, Mikasa turned her head slightly and noticed Armin coming up behind her.

"'Witchcraft and Wizardry'?" He repeated. "Y-you mean magic?"

"Yes, I do indeed mean exactly that." The old man, Dumbledore, replied. He looked down at Armin with a friendly gaze, he didn't appear threatening in any way at all but you could never really be too careful in a world like this one.

"But magic doesn't exist. The concept of magic is completely unreal and unscientific! Nobody has ever been able to prove the existence of magic so why should any of us believe you?" Armin continued. Of course the logical side of Armin's brain would instantly disagree, not that Mikasa was against that, she entirely agreed with everything that her friend was saying.

"That's what I though too, Armin, until I saw him make things fly using a stick!" Hange piped up happily, her eyes glowing with enthusiasm, she appeared almost dangerous.

"You can't make things _fly_ using _sticks_, what a load of crap!" Ymir countered, to which Krista elbowed her gently in the ribs, muttering something about being disrespectful.

"You may feel this way about magic now, but I can assure you that once you've seen it with your own eyes you may feel differently." Dumbledore looked around at them, his blue eyes sparkling from behind his strangely-shaped glasses.

"Yeah, I doubt that," Jean muttered under his breath. Whilst Mikasa wasn't paying attention to him, he'd come up behind her and now stood beside her.

"Show us some magic!" Sasha asked almost excitedly, "If you say it's real then prove it!" Her tone of voice didn't really make it all that clear whether or not she actually believed, but if Mikasa had to take a guess, she'd say that Sasha was definitely hoping it was real.

"Believe me, this man does in fact appear to be able to do magic." Erwin said as he entered the room. At the appearance of the Commander Mikasa noticed the other standing a little more respectfully. "As of now, I see no reason to distrust this man."

"Thank you, Erwin." Dumbledore smiled, nodding his head to show respect. He then turned to face the younger soldiers again. "Now, I have come here today to inform you of a mission you've been specially selected to take part in. This was all Levi's idea, and was approved by your Commander, Erwin. I think I shall allow them to take the stage for now, I should think that you'll want to hear this from them rather than me."

"As Dumbledore was saying," Levi began, "All of you gathered here, Hange included, will be going on a mission. This isn't an ordinary mission, so listen up, if we do this correctly we could uncover where the Titans came from and how to eradicate them."

Mikasa was trying to fit the puzzle together in her head. What had happened whilst Levi and Eren were away? Where was Eren now? Upon hearing that they could possibly uncover where the Titans came from perked her interest just a little. After all, that subject was normally connected with Eren. Being caught in the web of her own thoughts, Mikasa hadn't even heard the others murmuring and yelling out questions to Levi.

"Shut up, give me a chance to explain," He raised the volume of his voice to silence them all before adding in a muttered, "Goddamned brats." As Levi explained, Mikasa was getting more and more disbelieving of what was being asked of her. How the hell was she supposed to believe that Titans came from somewhere linked to a magical school, outside the Walls, in a place called Scotland?! What sort of crap was he trying to fool them with? And more importantly, what was Eren doing there?

"So, go and make sure all your equipment is in good working order, and be outside the front entrance in an hour. That's when we'll be leaving." Levi finished. Mikasa watched as he surveyed each one of them before turning on his heel and walking out of the room, followed by Erwin, Dumbledore and Hange, leaving the 104th squad standing there, mouths gaping, looking and feeling like absolute idiots.

* * *

><p>The hour went by slowly. Mostly because it was spent wanting Eren back, although others were complaining of how quickly the hour had gone by as they made their ways down towards the front entrance. Once they got there their superiors were already standing there, with the exception of Dumbledore, whom Mikasa still didn't trust.<p>

"Today we'll be travelling by Portkey," Dumbledore announced to them. "The sensation will most likely feel weird and unnatural, but I assure you, that is what it is supposed to feel like. Now, without further ado, let's begin."

The old man pulled out one of the most disgusting boots that Mikasa had ever seen in her life. Why would someone carry such a thing around with them? There was no way that Mikasa was going to touch it if that's what he was expecting. She watched as Dumbledore murmured something, and caught him slipping something back into his robes, as he did the boot began to glow a faint blue colour. It certainly took Mikasa by surprise.

"Now, I am aware that this is going to put some of you off, but I need you to all grab a hold of this boot, otherwise, you won't be able to get to Hogwarts." Dumbledore informed them.

"But that boot is gross!" Jean retorted, "God knows what's on it!"

"Yeah, there's no way I'm touching that!" Connie agreed.

"How the hell is some boot gonna get us to a magical school anyways?" Reiner added disbelievingly.

"Grab the boot that is an order!" Levi interjected, disrupting all of the disagreement.

"When exactly will this activate, Dumbledore?" Erwin asked as all reluctant paired of hands lightly grabbed onto the boot. Dumbledore gave a gentle, knowing smile.

"Right about now."

Suddenly, Mikasa felt a tug from behind her navel and the world around her began to spin. All of the colours began to swirl and the bright sky soon became non-existent. If it weren't for all the arduous 3DMG training she'd gone through, Mikasa was sure that this would have made her nauseas. This would have scared her old self, although, her old self probably wouldn't have ever gotten into this situation anyways and with that, she shook those thoughts off. All she wanted now was to find Eren. Before too long, Mikasa noticed the ground coming up to meet her. She saw that Armin was going to fall flat on his face so she reached out an arm, and pulled him in closer.

Mikasa managed to keep the two of them from landing in a pile like the majority; she and Armin stumbled and landed on their hands and knees. Mikasa looked around and saw that they were in a sort of giant office. This one was much bigger than Erwin's. A large desk stood near them, piles of parchments stacked high on the surface. Mikasa took in the grand sight of all the bookcases and paintings, even the walls fit in. This must be the inside of some sort of castle.

"Welcome," Dumbledore suddenly spoke, "to Hogwarts!"

Mikasa got to her feet and noticed Armin gaping at everything, of course he'd love a place like this, there looked to be so much to learn. But they all had to keep in mind that they were on a mission here.

"I will show you to your room. All students should be in lesson right now, so there shouldn't be too much of a hassle. Before that though, I would just like to confirm that you have permission to all parts of the school, you may use part of the grounds for training, permitted you do not disturb the students or destroy the school, and you can also sit in on lessons. Although, to prevent too much chaos, please keep inside your quarters until lunch, which is a mere few hours away. If you need anything, just alert one of the house elves." Dumbledore informed them. Mikasa followed at the back of the crowd, with Armin, as they were the furthest from the door. She watched as Dumbledore spoke with Levi, Hange and Erwin at the front. Way too much was going on in such short amounts of time. For starters, how did they get in here? Was this the magic that Dumbledore had been talking about? Mikasa still wasn't sure if she believed it but she didn't really have much of a choice over anything now, did she?

"So," Armin piped up in a small voice as he looked about, "where do you think they're keeping Eren?"

"I have no idea. Maybe he's already in the room." Mikasa replied. Armin nodded thoughtfully as they continued the rest of the walk in silence.

Now that they had moved from that office, Mikasa could really see that this was some sort of castle. It had to be. She wondered just how many students were here if the school was this big; it certainly wasn't anything like what she had been expecting. Once they reached a large door, Dumbledore stopped.

"To go inside your room, you are going to have to wear these amulets. As well as taking the stress off of your bodies, due to all the anti-muggle charms, the doorway had also been enchanted to allow only those with these to enter." Dumbledore pulled out a handful of small chains, attached to the end of each one were small, red, squared-shaped gems, a silver coloured lining around the edge. Mikasa took one from Dumbledore's hand as she entranced the room. She was surprised by what she saw.

The room was decorated with a warm interior, with a few desks pressed against the walls, and comfortable looking chairs spread about the room. There was a rather large, comfortable looking chair in the middle, it was long and had room for many people, Mikasa had never seen anything like that before. There was also a fireplace and a large window.

Eren wasn't in here either.

"Where's Eren?" Mikasa asked Dumbledore.

"Ah, I believe you'll want to come with me. I shouldn't think it'll do any harm to go and see your friend."

"I'm coming, too." Armin added. Dumbledore smiled, he glanced over at Erwin, who was standing nearby.

"As Dumbledore has said, I see no harm in going to see Eren." Erwin said as he turned away. Mikasa watched as he and Levi began a hushed conversation, away from the others, who were exploring the contents of the room.

"Let go then," Dumbledore looked to them, leaving the sentence hanging, Mikasa supposed that he wanted their names.

"Mikasa Ackerman," Mikasa filled, she was sure that Dumbledore had been told of who they all were previously anyways, although probably couldn't match the names to the faces. Mikasa saw that when she spoke her name, the old wizard's eyes lingered upon the scar on her cheek for a few seconds before a knowing look came over his face.

"Armin Arlert," Armin caught what was going on and also introduced himself. As they left the room, Dumbledore quietly shut the door and began walking.

"The Hospital Wing isn't too far from here, so don't worry."

"Eren's in the Hospital Wing!?" Armin exclaimed, "What happened?!"

"I am afraid that there was a Titan attack. Eren displayed his… abilities, and must have exhausted himself. He's been asleep all through the weekend.

"So there are Titans here, at the school?" Armin asked, worriedly.

"No. They seem to attack at random, usually every few weeks although Levi has said that these Titans appear different to the ones that you are used to fighting, they abnormal. I'll explain more about this at a later time, but for now, I think you'd like to see Mr Jaeger."

When they finally reached the Hospital Wing, Mikasa noticed that only a couple of the beds had their curtains pulled around, and it didn't look anything like what she was expecting. Not that anything here looked how she was expecting it to look. Mikasa heard Dumbledore tell her which bed Eren was in before her legs began to move on their own accord. She soon found herself jogging towards the bed. Mikasa gently pulled the thin white curtains back with shaky hands before her eyes finally rested upon Eren's sleeping form.

Eren was safe. That was all that was going through Mikasa's mind. Everything felt unreal right then. Tears sprung to her eyes like the first time she'd found Eren alive after being told he was dead. She watched through blurry eyes as Armin moved around the bed and took Eren's hand, as if checking that he really was there. Mikasa sat on the edge of the bed, careful not to sit on Eren, and slowly leaned over him. She brought her arms behind his back and softly hugged him, resting her head on his shoulder as she allowed the tears to fall.

A low groan was emitted from beneath her, and Mikasa froze.

"Mikasa, I think he's waking up!" Armin said, relieved.

Mikasa pulled back to look at Eren's face, his eyebrows furrowed as he attempted to open his eyes.

* * *

><p>The first thing that Eren noticed as he tried to force his eyes open, was that there was someone hugging him. Next, he noticed dampness on his shoulder and realised that whoever it was must also be crying. Now Eren was curious. He groaned at his pulsing head as he roused himself back to the conscious world, his heart suddenly leapt when he heard the familiar voice.<p>

"Mikasa, I think he's waking up!" Armin? Yes, that was Armin! But… did that mean that the whole Hogwarts affair was just a dream? Either that or… No, they couldn't be here, could they? The only way to find out was to wake up so that was what Eren did. As his eyes moved into focus he saw two familiar faces hovering expectantly over him. Even though he still couldn't see properly he'd woken up from unconsciousness enough times now to recognise Armin and Mikasa, even when blurry.

"You guys! Armin, Mikasa!" Eren mumbled out, he couldn't get his voice very loud as his throat was dry and achy. How long has he been out this time? "What… What's going on?"

"Everyone's here, Eren, we're on a mission here." Armin replied, smiling widely.

"But don't worry about any of that now; you just focus on getting better." Mikasa told him with a slightly wobbly voice as she pushed some hair out of his eyes. Mikasa cleared her throat to try and level her tone.

"I am better." Eren reassured them, "It's just a little headache now."

"That's good," Armin squeezed his hand slightly, "it's good to know that you're alright. We were told that you were dead, but we never gave up on you."

"Thanks, guys," Eren thanked with a thick voice; it felt so unreal to finally see familiar voices, other than Levi. After being forced into this place completely unexpectedly, after all the stress of staying here, after everything, just seeing Mikasa and Armin was slightly overwhelming, but in a good way, he felt too happy to put into words.

Eren felt a tear roll down his face, he brought up his free hand to wipe it away but another one quickly took its place. And that was all it took. The overwhelming feeling seemed to have infected his friends, too.

So the three weary friends came together on the hospital bed, in a heartfelt hug, and cried.

* * *

><p><strong>Hello and thank you for reading, favourite-ing, following and reviewing the story! I'm sorry that I took so long to update, I had lots of school work to get done, and I was ill recently so this chapter isn't as good as I would have liked it to be. I may rewrite it at a later date. <strong>

**But nevertheless, I hope you all have a great Christmas, if you celebrate, and an awesome New Year! :D**


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen

"You have all been called forth today for a rather interesting assembly," Dumbledore's friendly voice encased the Great Hall, "for today I have an important announcement to make!"

Hermione turned to Harry and Ron where the three of them exchanged curious glances. "What do you think he means?" She asked.

Ron shrugged, "I dunno,"

"I reckon it's probably something to do with that attack," Harry whispered. Hermione nodded then turned her attention back to the Headmaster, not wanting to miss any potentially valuable information.

"Although before I announce anything, I would like to apologise for all the lies surrounding Levi and Mr Jaeger." Clearing his throat, Dumbledore continued, "You have been told that both Eren and Levi were from another school, apparently visiting Hogwarts for research purposes surrounding the topics of Magical Creatures and such. Though, by now, I presume that many of you in here are aware that this isn't true. I believe that those of you whom witnessed the horrifying attack on our school, will have noticed that it was those two brave soldiers who defeated them – effectively protecting all of us in the process."

At this point, many students began to mutter amongst themselves at a dizzying rate, the noise level just seemed to be growing higher and higher by the second. It seemed that Hermione wasn't the only one with theories, but at least hers were more plausible than the ones being spoke of around her. Tucking her brunette hair behind her ear, Hermione tried to work out what the _real_ announcement was. Being as Dumbledore had said that this little titbit of information was only an apology, Hermione honestly couldn't think of many other things worth mentioning, especially as the subject of the Titans hadn't been elaborated when the chance was given it probably wasn't about them. Still, though, the intelligent witch had instantly presumed that this assembly was going to be at least somewhat centred around Eren and Levi, even before Dumbledore had begun talking.

Hearing the headmasters' voice again, the Great Hall returned back to shocked silence, Hermione made sure to listen very carefully, as the chances were she wouldn't hear the same version of the same story twice – not in a school that passed on rumours as quickly as this one did.

"Now, due to this attack, I thought it necessary to bring in some people more fitted to the job of protecting our school should anything of the sort ever occur again. However, I wish you not to panic as I shall make sure that no harm befalls any of you students. Nevertheless, I'd like you all to give a warm welcome to our new guests, whom will protect our beloved school and all of the student body!" Dumbledore widened his arms and looked to the general direction of the great double doors at the end of the Hall. Hermione, along with the majority of the other people in the room, also locked eyes with the doors.

Just then, as though given a signal, a thin beam of light shot out as the entrance began to open and a large group of people filed into the Hall, led by Eren and Levi.

Gasps were released from both parties, the students marvelling at the arrival of all these geared soldiers, the soldiers, whom couldn't have been much older than Hermione, gaping at the giant hall, filled with people. Hermione caught a brunette girl and a short boy with little hair, in particular, making a fuss over the ceiling. All pairs of eyes followed the group of soldiers as they made their way through the middle of the Hall. Ron groaned.

"I'm happy and all that Eren's okay after that fight, but did he _have_ to bring all his friends? That Levi geezer scared me enough!" He mumbled, eying all thirteen of the people passing through. However, once Ron accidently locked eyes with a rather tall and intimidating-looking girl, who raised her eyebrow in an almost threatening way, if that was even possible, he looked away, embarrassed.

"Here I'd like to introduce you to the people whom will be staying here with us for what may well be the rest of the year, I hope for you all to welcome them into our community and treat them with the utmost of respect. I'll let them take over now, I'm sure to have a few words with you all before you head back to your dorms for the night." Dumbledore concluded his speech. Hermione watched as Levi exchanged a few short, quiet, words with a tall, blond man, the latter then stepping forwards out of the line he was standing in.

"Thank you, Albus," the man said, nodding his head. He swept his blue eyes across the room before speaking. "My name is Commander Erwin Smith, and I think it would be best to introduce you to the rest of my men before I begin, although you already know Corporal Levi and Eren Jaeger."

Hearing one of the twins, Ron's brothers, snigger, Hermione turned to glare at them, attempting to silence them. Although this wasn't before she overheard Fred's remark concerning Erwin's eyebrows. Fighting the urge to sigh, she gave up, leaving the two of them to creat their rather insulting nicknames. Erwin pointed out each of the soldiers, whom took a step forwards before falling back to their places upon the call of their names.

"Mikasa Ackerman, Armin Arlert, Jean Kirstein, Sasha Blouse, Connie Springer, Ymir, Krista Lenz, Reiner Braun and finally Bertolt Hoover. These people will be patrolling around the school at any given time, they have permission to enter classes and say what they wish to students. However, attempting to gain any classified information from them will prove to be futile, none of them will give it to you." Erwin paused, allowing his information to sink in before he continued. "Also, I wish for you students not to touch any of our equipment or damage it in any way as this could prove to put both parties in quite the dangerous situation. In finality, I'd like to thank everyone involved, students and staff for welcoming us into your school. We shall do our best to protect it whilst carrying out our own mission in the process. Thank you for this grand opportunity." Then, with a slight bow of his head, Erwin finished his speech and stepped backwards into line with the other soldiers. Erwin stood smartly in-between Levi and Hange.

Hermione gave a respectful round of clapping which blended into the enthusiastic claps and cheers of the rest of the hall. Not so subtle mutters began to rise around her, gradually morphing into excited chatter. Dumbledore moved back to his golden podium with a smile, his eyes twinkled behind his half-moon glasses as he extended his arms and gave them permission to leave. It was getting late anyways, so Hermione, along with Ron and Harry, made their way out of the Great Hall, throwing careful glances back at the curious people as they went. Hermione almost felt sorry for the young soldiers, as tomorrow they were going to receive one heck of a question and answer session.

* * *

><p>"Man, there are so many kids here!" Connie sighed, rubbing the back of his neck, watching as the remaining students filed out. Beside him, Sasha nodded, also watching.<p>

"I know, but have you _seen_ the _size _of this place?!" She exclaimed, "It's just a matter of time until I get lost,"

"Yeah, right, I'd just have to wave some bread around and you'd come running back! You're like some sort of animal!" Connie retorted, turning to face his friend.

"I would not!" Sasha crossed her arms, glaring at Connie. Although before Connie could say anything further Jean intervened from besides Sasha,

"Would you two just shut up? Don't you grasp how serious this situation is?" Jean said harshly, shutting the two of them up. Once the Hall was empty, apart from their group and a couple of the teachers, Dumbledore included, Eren let out a large sigh.

"I can't believe this is happening…" He murmured.

"Yeah, well get used to it, brat, you're going to be here for a pretty long time." Levi said before turning his attention away. "Thank you again, Albus, for granting us permission."

"Ah, it's no problem, my friend, besides; you're doing Hogwarts a favour in return. Now, why don't you go back to your room? I am sure you all must feel tired after this travel. I'll send some house elves up to deliver some food if you'd like, just for today whilst you grasp a handle on this situation." Dumbledore told them. Eren couldn't help but be surprised at the old man's kindness; it wasn't every day this sort of thing happened after all.

Upon reaching their Common Room, Eren looked around; it was slightly different to what he remembered it being. The main room was larger than it used to be, if only a little, and there were now more doors, too. Eren jumped when a large hand clamped down on his shoulder.

"We had a look around whilst you were sleeping your ass off in the hospital," Reiner laughed, "There's two separate dorms, boys and girls, and two separate bathrooms. But Erwin, Levi and Hange have their own rooms, the lucky bastards." He added the last part quietly, as if scared he'd be overheard.

"Wait, so we're all staying in one room then?" Asked Eren. Reiner nodded,

"Yeah. The boys in one room, the girls in the other, that's what I just said."

"Reminds you of the trainee days doesn't it, Eren?" Bertolt added, coming up to tower behind him, next to Reiner.

"I guess so, I mean, we're all pretty familiar with sharing a room now anyways." Eren laughed, "It's not like we get our own rooms in the Scouts either. Man, the few days that I got my own room here was the best!"

"Hah, I bet it was! Still though, it doesn't matter where we sleep it isn't gonna make this mission any easier!" Reiner looked past Eren upon the sound of a door closing. "Looks like the food's here! If there's one good thing that came from you getting yourself eaten by that crazy titan it was the look of this food!"

"Reiner." Bertolt snapped hurriedly with a mildly worried face, motioning for Reiner to move away, effectively stopping him from saying anything else. Eren shook his head at the strange behaviour, furrowing his eyebrows at what Reiner had said to him. He had a strange feeling about it, Eren didn't remember ever telling Reiner about that Abnormal titan he and Levi had encountered, much less what had happened to get to Hogwarts. Nevertheless, Eren shrugged it off; maybe he'd heard the story from someone else. Giving no further thought to the situation, Eren joined Mikasa and Armin near one of the food laden desks.

Although it was rather hard to reach the desks, what with Sasha gathering the delicious looking sandwiches like she were preparing for hibernation and also due to the general fact that the desk was pushed right against the wall – therefore leaving only one side open to retrieve food. However, he managed. Eren stretched his arm out to reach the plates, getting a dirty look from Jean when he accidently knocked him. Gathering bacon (a food he found he really enjoyed), a couple of sandwiches, and some chocolate covered biscuits (something only the rich merchants and such could normally afford back home), he went over to sit on the large, comfortable sofa to eat his food. He watched in nervous fascination as Hange excitedly stuffed herself with as much food as possible then ran to the window seat which Krista was seated at.

"We're outside the Walls!" Hange all but shrieked, Krista winced at the volume, gently shuffling away from the crazed scientist. Eren couldn't help but wonder if the fact that they were now away from the Walls had only just hit Hange or whether she already knew but had been containing herself.

Hange pressed a clammy hand to the cool glass of the window, pressing her face against it and looking outside. "We are actually outside the Walls!" She repeated, a little quieter. "I wonder what sort of creatures are out there, I wonder what the people are like, and I wonder what's really out there! Oh, the possibilities! If only I had my equipment here with me! Think of the experiments!"

"Would you calm down, Shitty-Glasses?" Levi groaned, crossing his arms and staring at Hange's back as she continued to squint through the descending darkness in an attempt to see further.

"But Levi!" Hange's head whipped around to look at him, her glasses askew and in an awkward position on her nose, "Look at everything! There's so much to see and so much-"

"I've already been here a week, shut up and maybe I'll tell you about what it's like!"

"Really?! Do tell! I'm _dying_ to know!" Hange pleaded. Eren looked away before he was dragged into the explanations. He didn't want to be around Hange when she was in this state, he'd rather wait until she'd calmed down before she spoke to her. Eren didn't feel like staying up all night to answer her endless questions. He almost felt sorry for Levi but he could handle it.

Eren stood up and stretched; Mikasa took his and Armin's empty plates, as well as her own, and stacked them neatly on the desk.

"I'm going to bed," Eren sighed, running a tired hand through his hair. "I'm tired as hell."

"Yeah, I think I'll get going too," Armin picked up his jacket and emerald cloak from where he'd earlier discarded them. Mikasa nodded and followed them. Upon reaching the door to the boys' dorm, Eren turned with a light frown.

"Mikasa, you've got to go to the other dorm." He said. Mikasa shook her head.

"I know you're tired, Eren, but without a doubt you're going to have many questions thrown your way. I want to be there when that happens." She explained. Eren raised an eyebrow.

"Questions?" He asked, "I suppose I can answer a few before I go to sleep. I mean, it's not that late here yet anyways."

"Okay." Mikasa nodded.

"The others already went in there a little while ago anyways, I think Krista, Ymir, Sasha and Jean are the only ones still in the main room." Armin said with a light shrug of his shoulders. Armin slowly opened the door and walked inside, followed by Eren and Mikasa. None of them bothered with closing it. The interior looked almost identical to the dorm room in Gryffindor, except there were large banner type fabrics hanging across higher parts of the walls, the Wings of Freedom. Bertolt and Reiner were sitting on one of the beds, talking in hushed voices with one another. Eren saw that as they walked in, the ceased their conversation and looked to them with smiles.

"Hey there!" Reiner greeted with a short wave of his hand. On the far side of the room, Connie yelped.

"Dude!" He yelled, "Mikasa, what are you doing in here? I could have been naked for all you know!"

"I don't care, I'm only-"

"Here for Eren, yeah I know." He grumbled, opening a sizeable wooden chest at the end of the bed and carefully placing his Manoeuvre Gear inside. Mikasa narrowed her eyes at Connie for a moment, and then turned away.

"Anways," Eren began, "if any of you have any questions to ask me about what it's actually like here at Hogwarts, now is the time to ask them."

"Wait, so we can ask you what happened and stuff?" Connie questioned, perking up in interest at the situation.

"I suppose so, yeah, I'll answer what I can." Eren gave a somewhat nervous laugh.

"We should do this in one sitting." Armin spoke, "I'll go and get everyone else if you want."

"Okay," Eren agreed, sitting on the bed next to the one Bertolt and Reiner were situated on. He didn't have to wait long before everyone was crowed around the bed, with the exception of Levi, Hange and Erwin.

"Well aren't you the popular one, you Suicidal Bastard," Jean smirked as he walked over to stand at the side of the bed. Eren's lips twitched into smile. It didn't matter how annoying they all were, or how much of an ass Jean could be, Eren was glad to have them all here. It was getting lonely as Hogwarts with only Levi as company. "Getting your own little question and answer session. Hah, don't let it get to your head, you aren't _that_ special!" Jean joked.

Eren laughed. "Right then, ask away!"

* * *

><p>The Gryffindor Common Room was buzzing with excited students. For one, nobody seemed to be studying or working on overdue pieces of homework, secondly, barely anyone had gone upstairs to the dorms yet – the students were still enthusiastically discussing the happenings of what occurred within the Great Hall. Harry was sitting on the sofa, near the fireplace, absently rubbing at his right hand, wincing at the pain. Realising what he was doing, he quickly stuffed his hand inside his robes, trying to look as though he was sitting casually with his arms crossed. However, before he could do that, Ron managed to catch sight of the cut gracing the back of Harry's hand, effectively cutting his conversation with Hermione short.<p>

"Harry, what's wrong with your hand?" Ron asked, Hermione glanced first at Ron and then to Harry's hands. Said boy raised his left hand and gave a nervous sounding laugh.

"Nothing's wrong with my hand, see?" Harry told them. Ginny, who had been seated near the hearth by the warmth of the fire, grasped Harry's wrist whilst he was focussed on Ron.

Ginny gasped, "This isn't just nothing, Harry!"

Hermione leaned over to get a better look at the wounded hand, "Harry, why didn't you say anything?! I thought Umbridge was just giving you detentions!"

"Just leave it alone!" Harry snapped, pulling his wounded hand back towards his body. The words _'I must not tell lies'_ was still firmly etched into the back of his hand.

"You've gotta tell Dumbledore about this, mate, you can't just leave it! It's against the rules!" Ron exclaimed, exasperated at his friend's situation.

"No!" Harry shot back, "besides, I'm sure that Dumbledore already has enough to deal with without me coming along and adding to the pile."

"But-" Hermione started.

"No. And that's final. Besides, Eren got the same treatment and he isn't moaning about it is he?"

"She did this to Eren, too?!" Ginny cried, standing up from her previous position.

"Talking of Eren," a familiar voice said,

"What do you think of all these new folk?" Another finished. It was Fred and George. The sudden appearance of the Weasley Twins gave Harry the opportunity to lighten the mood, as well as change the subject.

"I think it's a bit much," Said Harry, turning around on the sofa to face the two of them. Harry caught Hermione somewhat glaring at him, he ignored her.

"Well," Said Fred, "I certainly see some grand opportunities unveiling themselves!"

"Indeed, my dear brother," Said Fred, "I know what you mean! I, too, am thinking of some rather… interesting situations."

"What on _earth_ are you two idiots on about?" Ginny asked, watching her brothers with confusion. Fred and George merely smiled. Harry sometimes felt rather uncomfortable around them when they created their scheme's wordlessly with one another – he never did understand quite how they did that.

"Ah, dear sister, just wait and see!" It was George, Harry thought so anyways, who began talking this time.

"Let's just say, if all goes right,"

"We may be able to scare the eyebrows off them!"

"Eyebrows?" Ron asked, it took a moment to click in his mind, "Ah! I get ya."

"You two are so inconsiderate!" Hermione snapped, "this is a very serious situation and all you two can think about are things that people can't help! They're here to guard our school and you're going to _prank_ them?! What utter nonsense!"

"We never said that!" Fred placed a hand over his chest in what looked like mock hurt.

"Of course we'd never _dream_ of doing such a thing!" George finished, copying his brother's actions.

"Some of them could do with loosening up a little though," Harry murmured, thinking of Levi. He felt a hand pat his shoulder.

"Great minds think alike!" One of the twins praised him, he couldn't quite make out which it was. "Now, let us go dear Fred!" Ah, so it was George.

"Of course, my dear George!" Fred smiled. And with that they left, leaving the rest of them confused over what had just happened.

"I swear, those two are going to get themselves into serious trouble one of these days! I don't see why they can't just leave them alone!" Hermione ranted, referring to the soldiers whom had newly arrived. Harry shook his head.

"It would be great to see if Levi actually had any emotion though." Ron spoke up.

"But still," Ginny sighed, "I'm going to go up to bed now, anyways. I have some homework to catch up on before I go to sleep."

"I suppose I could get some quick studying in, too." Hermione agreed.

"Honestly, studying?" Ron drawled. Hermione gave him a quick glare to shut him up before gathering her things and retreating upstairs with Ginny.

"Ron, you need to learn the art of subtlety," Harry laughed at his friend. Ron joined him for a few moments before his face turned to a serious mask.

"Seriously though, Harry, I really think that you should tell someone about that hand."

"Can we just leave it? There's nobody to tell! And besides, if I told someone then that would just be like letting Umbridge win!" Harry argued. Ron sighed and dragged a hand through his messy red hair.

"Fine, fine, we'll leave it! But if it gets any worse then I'm saying something!" Ron warned. Harry knew that he was just trying to look out for him, but that didn't make him any less annoying. "Anyways, about what you said earlier, Eren got the same treatment?"

"Yeah," Harry confirmed, "Eren got the exact same printed on his hand, but…" He trailed off. Ron cocked his head to the side in an attempt to get Harry to carry on.

"But what, Harry?"

"But it was weird when it happened to Eren." Harry stated, looking as though he was deep in thought.

"Why?" Ron urged.

"Well, that was that time I told you he ran from the detention. When he noticed the cut on his hand, he just up and bolted, he was all panicky and stuff – like something was going to happen. He kept saying that Umbridge didn't understand, and that was when he started to slip up. But when he ran, I got a glimpse of his hand. The cut had already completely healed. And to top it all off, it looked like some vapour was coming off it."

"Vapour? I think you must've imagined that part, Harry!" Ron lowered his voice as the crowd in the Common Room began to thin out. Harry hummed.

"Maybe I did." He agreed. "But I'll bet anything it's to do with that giant he became, it all links together somehow… But I don't know how… Hermione's way better at figuring this stuff out than we are."

"Agreed!" Ron held up a hand in agreement.

"But still, things are getting pretty weird at Hogwarts lately."

"Yeah, first the Ministry and then Eren and Levi, and now a whole 'Protect-Hogwarts-from-Giant-Naked-Monsters' squad!" Ron and Harry laughed at the formers description of everything.

"At least the attention is off me for a while," Said Harry.

"Yup,"

"I think we should try and get along with Eren after all," Harry mused, gently pushing his glasses back up his nose.

"Yeah, I guess underneath it all he must be an alright guy. I'm still a little scared of 'im though,"

"Ron, you're scared of everything,"

"…Shut up."

* * *

><p>Somewhere in the soldiers' dorm room, Eren sneezed.<p>

Mikasa was instantly by his side. "Are you okay Eren?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, Mikasa!" Eren lightly swatted her away.

"Man," Jean drawled, leaning backwards on the bed. He sat propped up with his hands behind him. "Hogwarts sounds amazing,"

"It really does!" Krista agreed, clasping her hands together, "I would really like to see what's outside though, I can't see very well through all the darkness."

"Yeah, we should go out there tomorrow." Ymir decided, leaning forwards with her elbows resting on her knees.

"I can't wait!" Sasha grinned, elbowing Connie in the ribs, silently asking him to do the same. He nodded to her.

"I think I'll head to the library tomorrow," Armin said thoughtfully. Reiner huffed.

"We're finally outside the Walls and all you can think about are books!" He said good-naturedly.

Armin looked down and fiddled with the hem of the blanket he was sat on. "But, I heard that the library here is massive. I'll still go outside though; I wouldn't ever give that chance up!" He added. Eren put a hand on Armin's shoulder.

"The Outside World, huh?" He asked with an unmistakeable smile.

Armin beamed back in excitement. "I can't wait!"

"Don't go getting all sentimental on us now!" Jean sat back up properly.

"Shut up, bastard!" Eren snapped, although without anger. Eren couldn't really muster any anger at this given moment.

"Don't you think we should be getting to sleep soon?" Bertolt asked quietly. Eren could almost feel Mikasa tense besides him.

"No!" Connie yelled, "I say we stay up and have a celebratory party!"

"Yeah, well have your goddamn party out there, I don't wanna hear it!" Ymir cruelly dismissed the proposal. "Well, I'm off then."

"I'm going, too." Krista also rose from her position on the bed. Next, Sasha left the room, followed by Mikasa, whom gave Eren a quick hug before retreating into the girl's dorm. The looks Jean gave him didn't go unnoticed by Eren, but he chose to preserve the mood and not say anything about it.

Besides, it wasn't every day your greatest wish was granted.

* * *

><p><strong>Hey there! I'm so sorry for how long this took to get up; it's been over a month. But I hope this chapter is alright, I've just been pretty busy lately, I guess.<strong>

**Thanks again for all of your reviews, favourites and follows, it means a lot!**


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen

Harry awoke the following morning feeling oddly calm. He felt that it was the first true night of sleep he'd actually had since returning to Hogwarts, and it wasn't as though the first week back had been easy. As a matter of fact it had been extremely curious and stressful amongst a colourful array of other things. He lay there for a moment, deep in thought, watching as the dust caught the sunlight and swirled downwards until it reached a surface to cling to. With a quiet sigh, as everyone else in his dorm was still asleep, Harry heaved himself out of bed and proceeded to get ready for the days classes.

Once ready, Harry wandered down to the Common Room and took a seat in his favourite armchair, near the fireplace, despite there being no warmth radiating from it at this time in the morning. Settled comfortably, Harry unrolled a short piece of parchment he'd brought with him. Today he was going to attempt to write to Sirius. The past few times he'd tried, over the weekend, he'd been disturbed by one thing or another, however right now it was quiet and peaceful. He doubted many people would question what he was doing even if he was caught – writing a letter wasn't exactly out of the ordinary.

Balancing his ink on the armrest of the chair, Harry carefully dipped his quill into the dark substance before hovering said quill mere millimetres from the parchment. Now that it'd come to it, Harry had very little idea how to start the letter. A variety of questions were burning away at his brain, ready to be written into words yet it wasn't that simple. He knew that he had to word everything in a way that would make no sense to any letter-thieves that his message happened to come across. Pushing his glasses further up his nose slightly with his left hand, Harry collected his thoughts and decided to go for it. He set the quill down on the parchment and began his letter.

_Dear Snuffles,_

_Hope you're OK, the first week back here has been both terrible and strange. I hope that this week will be a little better, however I don't think it will be nearly as interesting as the last._

_ We've got a new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Umbridge. She's nearly as nice as your mum. I'm writing because that thing I wrote to you about last summer happened again last night when I was doing a detention with Umbridge. Also, I think the new people at our school may have some connection._

_We're all missing our biggest friend, we hope he'll be back soon._

_Please write back quickly._

_Best,_

_Harry._

After rereading the letter through many times, attempting to see it from the view of an outsider, he decided that it was safe to send. No-one would know who he was talking about, would they? Harry also hoped that he'd pick up on the various hints that he left without seeming too obvious. Such as when Hagrid might be back at school, or what happened to him. Also, he decided not to put too much into the letter regarding Eren and the others just in case there really was something bad about them being at Hogwarts. He just couldn't risk exposing too much information in a letter; there were some things that had to be talked about face-to-face. Looking about the room, Harry saw that he was no longer the only one there, although he was the only one there from his dormitory as it was still early. After re-reading the letter one more time, Harry carefully sealed the parchment before climbing through the portrait hole and heading for the Owlery before he ran out of time to grab breakfast before class started.

Just as Harry began walking down a passage close to his destination, Nearly Headless Nick drifted through a wall and hovered nearby.

"I would _not_ go that way if I were you, Harry," he said with somewhat of a nervous face.

"What? Why not?" Harry questioned.

"Peeves is planning something," the ghost explained, "and it involves both the next person to pass through and the bust of Paracelsus."

Sighing with annoyance, Harry figured out what Peeves was going to do. "He's going to push Paracelsus on top of the person's head, isn't he?"

"Yes, he is." Nearly Headless Nick shook his head somewhat tiredly. However, before Harry could so much as turn around to begin to walk the other way, a great crashing noise was heard, followed by a pained yell and a lot of cursing. Harry ran with wide eyes towards the source of the sound and found himself watching as a disorientated soldier struggling to pick himself up off the floor.

"Shit!" He cursed as he cradled a hand against his head. The soldier didn't look much older than Harry, maybe eighteen or nineteen at the oldest, he was also relatively tall and was clad in full uniform and weaponry.

"Hey, you okay?" Harry called, stuffing his letter into his trouser pocket. The soldier groaned as he looked up, his head was bleeding slightly.

"Yeah. Um'fine," He slurred out. Maybe he had a concussion? That bust was pretty heavy after all.

"Here, let me help." Harry muttered, kicking pieces of the smashed bust out of the way to clear a path, all the while Peeves cackled loudly above them, singing another of his ridiculous songs. "What's your name?"

"Jean!" A new voice called, "Jean, what happened?" It was a blonde boy with a sort of bowl cut. Harry recognised him as one of the soldiers who appeared most attached to Eren. The second soldier ran towards them, his Gear clanking loudly and causing a ruckus in Harry's eardrums. He could only imagine what it was doing for the guy on the floor, whose name he now knew was Jean.

"Armin?" Jean called slowly as he turned to look, hissing at the pain in his head.

"Jean, what happened?" Armin repeated, pulling one of Jean's arms over his shoulder and, with seemingly great difficulty, hefted him onto his feet. Feeling stupid for just standing and watching, Harry awkwardly wrapped Jean's other arm around his shoulders to help Armin support the weight he would've been practically dragging otherwise.

"O-oh, sorry about this," Armin told Harry, as if noticing for the first time he was there.

"It's fine." Harry reassured, "Peeves does this sort of thing to people all the time. If we just get him to the Hospital Wing Madame Pomfrey can fix him up in a second." Armin nodded, asking for Harry to lead the way.

"Fgn ghost… pushin' stuff on m'head…" Jean grumbled, blinking as a droplet of blood dripped over his eye.

"Try not to talk, Jean, you might have a concussion or something. What were you doing down here anyways? I tried to go after you but I got lost." Armin told him.

"I was hungry. Lookin' for the Great Hall and-" Jean gave a low hiss, "got lost."

"Well you could've just waited! Eren was about to head down there, he was going to show us where it is, so that we _don't_ get lost!" Armin sighed. Jean gave a noise of disapproval.

"I don't need that suicidal bastard t'show me!" Jean growled. Harry got the feeling that Jean didn't like Eren all that much, however he could be wrong. It wasn't as though he'd always had the best of judgments over people.

"The Hospital Wing is just over this way…" Harry said quietly, helping Armin to steer Jean. He tried to ignore the fact that Jean was much taller than the both of them.

* * *

><p>Twenty minutes, a sore head and some bandages later, Jean, Armin and Harry found themselves sitting in the Great Hall (on the Gryffindor table) surrounded by Hermione, Ron, Eren and Mikasa. Jean sat with his arms tightly folded, staring off to the side with his face set in a scowl, the effect, however, was lost to the pristine white bandage wrapped securely around his head, messing up his hair slightly. Trying to ignore everyone around him, Jean haughtily reached over and snatched up a piece of toast, which promptly ripped in half upon being pulled in the opposite direction by a different person. Lifting his stare, Jean locked eyes with his competitor. Eren. It just <em>had <em>to be Eren, didn't it.

Good, he'd been looking for a reason to have an argument. It wasn't as if he hated Eren, that wasn't the case at all – in fact, Jean considered Eren a friend – but that didn't mean that their bickering had ceased.

"Oi, you bastard! Let give me that back!" Jean yelled, making Harry, whom was seated beside him, to jump. Armin, on the other hand, stayed exactly as he was, used to these sudden shouting matches.

"What?! No! This is _my_ toast!" Eren yelled back. He attempted to stand up but was gently pulled back down my Mikasa.

"But _I _touched it first, you idiot!" Jean slammed his hands down on the table.

"How did you?! I was the one who had it first! Maybe you should have been looking where you put your hands!" Countered Eren before stuffing the limp and crumpled toast into his mouth with a victorious smile.

"You wanna fight, you Suicidal Bastard?!"

"Yeah! Bring it on, you horse-faced loser!"

"Would you both just please calm down?" Hermione suddenly spoke up, sternly, as both Eren and Jean slammed their hands down on the table and began to stand. Eren and Jean simultaneously turned to look at her, neither of them were sure whether or not they should shout at Hermione for butting in, or sit down and shut up.

"Tsk." Jean slumped back down into his seat. "I'm not the one who started it." He muttered.

"You're both causing a scene." Mikasa pointed out, gesturing to the faces of all the students who were gaping at them. Jean felt his face head up slightly in embarrassment. At that, Eren also regained his seat, pointedly grabbing another piece of toast. That little shit had taken the last piece of golden toast, too. Now, all that was left was the ends and the darker coloured bread with what looked like seeds mixed into it, Jean knew that he'd done it on purpose. That toast wasn't even Eren's favourite.

* * *

><p>"Thank the lord, those two morons finally shut their traps." Ymir sighed as she leaned backwards on the bench. Many of the students seated across the table were staring at her as she gave a large yawn and stretched her arms into the air. She was still tired, it had been a pretty eventful day yesterday. As Ymir brought her arms down, she accidentally knocked the clip out from the back of her hair. Cursing, she reached down to pick it up.<p>

Beating her to it, Krista tried to hand it back to its owner. "Here," She smiled.

"Oh, thanks, Krista. Hey, you think you could put it in for me? My arms ache." Ymir asked, rolling her shoulder.

"Yep, no problem!"

"What are you? A married couple?" A voice sneered from somewhere on the table. Ymir scoffed, she knew before she'd even sat down that this table was just going to be full of idiotic brats who didn't know how to keep their mouths closed. The kids here were Slytherins if she rembered correctly.

Raising a single eyebrow, Ymir countered, "So what if we are,"

"Wait," another kid's smile slipped from his face, he looked like a First-Year, "y-you mean you're actually a couple?!"

Smirking, Ymir continued, only to be cut off. "Totally, we've b-"

"Ymir!" Krista scolded. "No, we aren't a couple! We're just friends!"

"Hey, I was just having a little fun!" Ymir laughed, watching as Krista turned a faint shade of red.

"Well don't if you're going to go around telling kids stuff like that!" She huffed, crossing her arms over each other in an attempt to appear angry. Although, Ymir could tell that she wasn't being serious.

"Kids?" A boy with platinum blond hair and a rather stuck-up air about him spat. "We aren't 'kids'! How old are you anways? You can't be much older than us!"

"Old enough to beat your ass." Ymir retorted with a short laugh.

"I'm sixteen and Ymir is eighteen." Krista supplied, ignoring Ymir's statement. The blond kid gave a loud "Tch" before replying.

"Like I said, you're barely older than me! How the hell are you in the military?! Hell how are any of you?! Is the military that desperate that they employ kids where you're from? Wow, no wonder you're all freaks like that Eren and Levi!"

"I suggest you shut your mouth before I come over there and shut it for you, you goddamned brat!" Ymir hissed in a dangerously low voice. Krista was somewhat surprised at the reaction that Ymir gave. She would normally let this sort of thing slide, throwing back nothing but a few insults in return. Although, that kid really did have no idea what he was saying. He was being pretty offensive.

"Ymir," Krista whispered. "Let's leave. Why don't we go and have a look around. We're outside the Walls don't forget," She added the last part quietly and almost to herself in a sort of afterthought. Beside her, Ymir narrowed her eyes, still staring that insulting little brat down.

"In a moment. I want to beat that kid into the ground first!"

"No, C'mon, leave it," Krista urged, still confused as to why Ymir was so on-edge today. Standing, Krista placed a hand on Ymir's shoulder.

"Fine." Ymir spat, "But if that little shit tries anything again, I'm not holding back. I don't care if he is younger than me!"

"_Ymir!_" Krista scolded gently. With a final scowl, Ymir rose to her feet before following behind Krista and out of the Great Hall. However as they passed in between the Ravenclaw and Slytherin tables, Krista didn't notice the strange glances shared between Ymir and Bertolt and Reiner.

* * *

><p>Soon after the two girls had left, the volume from the Gryffindor table began to rise once again, however this time is wasn't because of Eren and Jean. No, a few minutes ago the morning post had arrived, bringing with it the Daily Prophet, what Eren had learned to be the Wizarding equivalent of a newspaper. To begin with, Hermione had just been scanning through articles at random, shaking her head amusedly, however once she reached a specific place her eyes widened as her lips parted to give an audible gasp.<p>

"… Sirius!" She whispered in an urgent voice, instantly catching the attention of Ron and Harry.

"What?! What happened?!" Harry exclaimed in a hushed voice as so not to catch the attention of the people sitting around them, he reached over the table in a hurry and snatched the paper away with such force that it ripped down the middle, leaving he and Hermione both holding half. Recovering from her state of slight shock, Hermione brought the paper closer to her face and read the text aloud.

"'_The Ministry of Magic has received a tip-off from a reliable source that Sirius Black, notorious mass murderer … _blah blah blah_ … is currently hiding in London!'"_

"I'll bet anything it was Lucius Malfoy, he must've recognised Sirius on the platform!"

"What do you mean?" Ron spoke up, looking alarmed, "You never said that-" Ron was cut off when Hermione continued to read from the paper.

"'_Ministry warns Wizarding community that Black is very dangerous … killed thirteen people … broke out of Azkaban …' _and the rest is just usual Ministry rubbish." Hermione lay down her half of the paper and looked fearfully to her friends. "He's just not going to be able to leave the house for-"

"Hold up a moment!" Jean interrupted, gaining a slight dirty look from Harry, who was sitting next to him.

"What?" Harry asked with a hint of irritability.

"Why the hell are you getting so worked up over this Sirius guy? I mean, if he's killed all those people and broken out of prison, shouldn't you stay out of it? And do you mean to stay that you know where this guy is? Are you sheltering a prisoner? I don't get it!" Jean said.

"I think you should stay out of it!" Harry snapped, "It's none of your business! Sirius did nothing wrong!"

"Harry," Ron urged, "just calm down, alright? It's not like it's his fault or anything!"

"Besides," Hermione added, "they're new here, they aren't going to know any more about Sirius than what they are told!"

"I know- it's just- Ugh … look, I'm sorry," Harry grumbled before looking back to his half of the newspaper. "Wait a second, there's more…"

"What? More on Sirius?" Ron asked. Harry shook his head.

"No, it's someone else, here, look …" Harry pushed the paper into the centre of the table so the Hermione and Ron could also read the article. Eren, Armin, Jean and Mikasa also tried to catch a glimpse. Eren, not really too fast at reading, didn't manage to catch all of it before Harry leaned over the paper to discuss with Ron and Hermione, although from what he could tell, something like a break in had occurred. Some guy named 'Sturgis Podmore' or something like that.

"Wait a second," Ron scrunched his eyebrows together in thought, "Sturgis Podmore? I know him! He's one of the Ord-"

"Ron shut up!" Hermione hissed quickly, glancing, panicked, at Eren, Armin, Mikasa and Jean.

"We'll talk about this later." Harry stated, although Eren could tell that he just meant when they were alone. Something wasn't right here, and as Harry had pried into his life, Eren was sure it was payback time.

* * *

><p>Lessons were just starting for the day at Hogwarts and Sasha and Connie had unfortunately both slept in, probably due to the time difference. Connie had been the first to wake up out of the pair but upon realising that there was no-one else in the room he quickly found that he'd overslept.<p>

He wandered, bare-footed, out of the room and gently knocked on the door to the girls' dorm, although hearing nothing but a soft snoring noise, he let himself in. There he found Sasha, alone in the dorm, and also deep in sleep. Connie contemplated just leaving her alone, however if there really wasn't anyone else in their quarters, Sasha might get lost somewhere. Besides, Connie was starving so he could only imagine how hungry the brunette might be. Planning his means of attack, Connie tiptoed over to his friend's bed and stared down at her, he thought about shouting in her ear or poking her awake but they seemed too common of ways to get her awake. In the end, after much scrutiny, Connie finally decided on simply grabbing a pillow from the bed next to hers and hitting her in the face with it. At first, Sasha didn't even flinch, she continued sleeping as though she hadn't felt a thing, but when Connie tried it a second time, she swiftly caught the pillow in her arms, accidently yanking Connie on top of her.

"Hey!" She exclaimed, "Get off, you're heavy!"

Connie blushed slightly, "Idiot. That was your fault!"

It was silent for a moment as Connie stood back up, and then,

"Oh man … I'm so hungry," Sasha groaned, wrapping her arms around herself. Her stomach growled loudly as though to accentuate this point.

"Well get up then! Once we've found food we've got the day off to explore! We're outside the Walls remember!" Connie laughed, it was clear how excited he was.

"Oh yeah! C'mon then what are we waiting for?!" Sasha exclaimed as she practically leapt out of bed.

"Hey, um, Sasha?" Connie raised an eyebrow.

"What?" She stopped in her tracks and turned around.

"Put some trousers on."

" … dammit."

Connie left the dorm and closed the door behind him as Sasha got dressed properly. In the meantime, Connie also grabbed a change of uniform he'd brought with him and went to the bathroom to get ready. Once the both of them were presentable, they headed towards the general direction of the Great Hall in the hopes that there would still be food there. Luckily, Sasha had a great memory for directions and remembered how to get to the Hall. They were both thoroughly disappointed to discover that they'd missed the food.

Just as they were about to complain, they heard footsteps behind them, they turned and found two identical looking people standing there.

"If you're looking for food," the one of them began with a smirk,

"Then we can fix you right up!" the other finished.

"Follow us, my friends,"

"For the most magnificent sight,"

"You'll ever see at Hogwarts!"

* * *

><p><strong>I am so so sorry about how long this has taken to update! I have been so busy with school it's unreal! <strong>

**And I also apologize for how rubbish a chapter this is, but it's better than nothing, I hope. I'm aware that the characters are OOC and the whole chapter has a kinda rushed together feeling but I'm really sorry, I will rewrite it if necessary. Hopefully, now that it's the Easter holidays I'll have time to write and get the next chapter up much sooner.**

**Thanks for the epic support on this story! And please let me know if there's anything you'd like to see happen, I'll see what I can do! :)**


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

The word 'magnificent' would have been an extreme understatement in the description of the beauty unfolding before the eyes of the two ravenous teenagers. Upon looking skywards, they found that the room was extraordinarily large and the ceiling was much higher and much more intricate than what they had imagined it would be. Mounds of haphazardly stacked pots and pans made from, unnaturally, glittering brass were heaped in shining masses against and around smooth stone walls; the latter were dully reflecting the warm light which radiated from the source of nothing other than a large bricked fireplace, lit with gently swaying flames.

However, it were neither this benevolent vision nor the mouth-watering aroma, surprisingly, that caught Sasha and Connie's attention more thoroughly than the petite, large-eared, creatures tottering about the kitchen on their spindly legs. In their arms, most of the squeaky-voiced beings carried with them trays of exquisite and somewhat expensive-looking food – the sorts of which Sasha expected to find being neatly served onto the pristine white tablecloth of the King's and other wealthy peoples of the centre Wall.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" A voice broke Sasha out of her reverie, the voice sounded breathy but in a fake sort of way, as though the speaker hadn't actually put any emotion behind their speech. Wonder-filled brown eyes flitted from place to place around the great room until they landed upon the fiery-haired speaker whom she thought had been one of the pair who brought her and Connie to such a pleasing place. Smirking down at her, the somewhat gangly teen waved a hand in front of his face.

"It wasn't me," he laughed before pausing for a moment, "or maybe it was. I don't know, maybe my dear old age is catching up with me! How about you, old Georgie?"

Who Sasha presumed was his twin, turned to look at his brother with an identical smirk. "Ooo, I don't know. Maybe the effects of that Ageing Potion we took last year are still lingering around,"

"Ah, that must indeed be it, my dear brother! Come now; let us leave these younglings to their feast!" Fred, Sasha remembered as his name suddenly struck her line of thoughts. Besides her, Connie reached to grab a hold on George's (or at least whom she presumed was George) arm as he made a move to leave back through the peculiar painting they'd entered through.

"H-hold on a second!" Connie exclaimed rather loudly, causing one or two of the bat-eared creatures to flinch at the sudden startle.

"A second will be held," said George, ceasing his large strides. Fred also halted, crossing his arms over his chest and looking to Connie.

"Whatever is the matter, my young friend?" Asked Fred, uncrossing his arms only to place a hand on Connie's, near-hairless, head; Sasha smothered a giggle behind her sweaty hand.

"G-get off me! What's the big idea?!" He hurriedly slapped Fred's hand away from him with a scowl, he sighed in annoyance before speaking again. "I was _going_ to say; what if we get lost? I mean, me and Sasha don't exactly know our way around here yet!"

Albeit squeakily, an unfamiliar voice replied, "Dobby will help yous!"

"Wah!" Sasha cried, swiftly bringing up her hands to her chest as she visibly jumped away from the voice.

"Here, Dobby'll help you!" George supplied, gesturing down to the elfish being. Then, with a further few words of parting, the twins exited the kitchens and left Connie and Sasha in the capable hands of Dobby. Connie furrowed his eyebrows and crouched down as to ensure direct eye-contact could be made without the somewhat extreme differences in height. Sasha was quick to follow his lead, also squatting down; she braced her hands on the wooden floor beneath her.

"So," Connie instigated in a questioning voice, "Dobby, huh?" Dobby's head nodded repeatedly at a hurried speed, making his large ears flap in a way that was mildly reminiscent of a sheet being shaken out. Either way it seemed uncomfortable, so Sasha asked another question to save Dobby the trauma of having his head fall off from the unnecessary nodding.

"What exactly are you, Dobby?"

Ceasing his nodding, Dobby replied in a slightly anxious voice. "Dobby is a proud house-elf, who serves his masters here at Hogwarts!"

"A house-elf?" Connie hummed, "So . . . is that like a servant or a slave something?"

"No! Dobby is no slave! Dobby enjoys his days at Hogwarts! But, yes, Dobby does serve his masters. But Dobby doesn't mind, Dobby likes to be of help!"

Looking about the kitchen, Sasha noticed other house-elves peering at them, the outsized eyes bulging as they watched; it was hard to determine what they thought of them. Although by no means did they appear hostile, so Sasha pressed on.

"Hey, do you guys prepare the meals here then?" She lifted her right hand from the floor and patted her grumbling stomach, "Because I don't know about Connie here, but I'm starving!" Another house-elf approached them, standing close to Dobby's side as their stick-thin limbs trembled beneath the, what could only be called, rags they wore as clothing.

"Y-yes, we d-do!" Its voice was definitely female, as well as rather high-pitched. Her ears were considerably longer than Dobby's, and she was also smaller height-wise.

"Well, do you think we could grab something to eat?" Connie's face split into a wide smile as he spoke, overjoyed that he was finally going to get some food in his system.

"Of course!" The female house-elf replied, bowing slightly. She smiled in return, revealing a mouth filled with darkened teeth which appeared as though they'd never once been brushed. "W-what would the young masters like?"

"What would we like?" Connie echoed, placing a hand over his chin as he thought. Sasha quickly asked what the house-elves had, which led to a simply mouth-watering list of foods she'd never tried and foods that were both familiar and appetising. All-in-all, it was safe to say that both teenagers left the Hogwarts kitchens content, and with full-stomachs.

* * *

><p>Dumbledore nodded his head slowly as Levi, Erwin and Hange each took turns in speaking. Once again, Levi found himself in Dumbledore's office. He was somewhat positive that he spent more time in this grand room than any other place in the school – between them, he and Eren had more than likely visited Dumbledore more often than the members of staff here at Hogwarts.<p>

"So it is definitely fine if we use this 'Quidditch' field for training when it is not in use by the school?" Erwin asked, his right hand scrawling notes down with a greying quill onto a sheet of rolling parchment. Levi watched for a few moments as his Commander pushed the parchment back down to the desk as it attempted to coil back around itself.

"Yes. So long as there are no lessons or practices going on at that moment in time." Dumbledore agreed, "I'm sure we can make a timetable or something of the sort,"

Hange suddenly leaned further forwards from her plush seat. "What about that grand-looking forest? You know what I'm on about right? I saw it from the dormitory window and I must say that it looks quite mysterious!"

The elderly wizard sighed, gently stroking his silvery beard as though lost deep in thought. The skin between his thin eyebrows creased slightly as he furrowed them. "I think it would be best if, for now, you stayed out of that forest. It is not called the 'Forbidden Forest' for no reason, after all."

"I heard from the kids that there's all sorts of creatures in there," Levi added, crossing his arms over his chest as he leaned further back into his dark, leathery chair.

Dumbledore hummed, "Yes, there are indeed many different creatures. Although not all are dangerous, I'd much rather prefer it if you stayed away. The Centaurs, especially, may not take kindly to foreign peoples stepping foot in the forest. I'd also like to minimize the injuries acquired whilst here, and whilst I do not doubt your abilities, these are magical creatures, and so, of course, they have different properties. I hope you can understand."

Hange slumped down a little, appearing downcast for a few moments before another idea appeared to take her brain over. "These 'creatures', would I ever be able to see one?"

"I am sure, if you have the time, you can go and observe a 'Care of Magical Creatures' lesson," Dumbledore smiled warmly. He rubbed his hands together as a grim expression once again crept across his wrinkled face. "Now," He began, "about the Titans." Levi felt his stomach clench at the mention of them. Of course nothing showed how he felt on the exterior, but that didn't mean he was emotionless altogether. Despite the attack, not too long ago, Levi had found himself becoming much too relaxed in this setting, he needed to be alert at all times.

"Yes," Erwin rolled the parchment up and tucked it neatly into a pocket on the interior of his military jacket. "I believe we should issue a protocol in the case of another attack. We must minimize the risks of any student or staff injury or fatality as much as possible." Dumbledore flinched lightly at the mention of anyone at all perishing, even though Levi was positive this man before him had witnessed some terrible things in his time, he was almost sure the prospect of having both students and staff alike killed and devoured by man-eating beasts had to rank near the top.

"How do you warn people of the dangers where you're from?" Questioned Dumbledore, clasping his hands together atop a trivial pile of papers on his wooden desk.

"Ah, well you must understand that until roughly six years ago, we had not been under the attack of Titans due to the fifty-meter high Walls surrounding us. However, we are nowhere near advanced as your people must be, especially with magic, so we issue a warning through the use of bells." Erwin explained slowly, making sure to include all the details. "However our methods are not the most effective. Due to the limited area of human territory, even if the bells were to ring ten minutes in advance, humans would still perish due to lack of supplies – such as food and clean water."

"That sounds terrible." Dumbledore kept eye contact with Erwin for a few moments. "Is there any other methods you use?"

"Only when we're outside the Walls scouting." Levi stated.

"Once we're in Titan territory we use a signal system Erwin came up with," Hange supplied, pushing her glasses up her nose. Erwin nodded gravely.

"Yes, we use signal flares to determine what the squadron does next. We have different coloured signals for each event. Although that system has many flaws and would most likely be ineffective here." Erwin glimpsed at Levi as he spoke, Levi looked away.

Hange gave a low hum, "There's always the Garrison . . ."

"Garrison?" Probed Dumbledore.

Hange gave a single, slow nod, her eyebrows pinched together as she thought. "We have a branch of the military that patrol and maintain the Walls . . . But I don't think there's enough of us to patrol the _entire_ school all the time. Or there might be if we use our brains in how we station each soldier,"

"I see where you're coming from, four-eyes," Levi agreed, "I think if we strategically placed soldiers in the most likely points an attack is going to come from, then we should be able to pull it off."

"For now at least," Said Erwin. "I think that if needed, we may have to change that method – although it should work for now."

"We're also going to need a safe point for students. A place to evacuate them to if needed,"

Dumbledore sighed deeply. "I would rather like to have all the students sent home, it appears much too dangerous for them here. I doubt the Ministry would hear of it, they'd probably presume it was all a ploy-"

There was a sudden knock on the door. "Come in!" Dumbledore called, looking past Erwin, Hange and Levi to the direction of the door. Said door slowly creaked open and a horribly familiar face darted from the space between the open door and the wall.

"I do hope I'm not interrupting anything!" A shrill voice spoke. It was none other than Umbridge. Levi hadn't seen her around for a while, not like he wanted to; he could gladly live the rest of his life without having to see her face again once.

"Not at all, Dolores. What is it?" Dumbledore seemed to have forced a faint smile onto his chapped lips.

Umbridge then pushed the door open a little further and held up a thick handful of papers. She had the most disgusting smile on her face, like she was about to do something that she knew everyone would hate.

"I think you know what this is about, Albus,"

"Ah." Was Dumbledore's short reply. "I'm afraid we shall have to continue our discussion at a later date. Please go ahead and get yourselves accustomed to the school and take a look around before settling your stations out."

Erwin was the first to rise to his feet, looking down at Umbridge as she stepped through the doorway and up to where Dumbledore was seated at his desk. They bid him goodbye before exiting the office, the last thing Levi heard before the door closed was Dumbledore tiredly telling Umbridge to take a seat.

* * *

><p>"Amazing," Armin exhaled as he craned his neck to peer around yet but another grand bookcase. The selves were full to the brim of books, some more so than others. There were also piles of books magically returning from a dusty pile on the floor to a location on a wooden shelf of one of the bookcases. Armin found it extremely difficult to grasp that magic was, in fact, real – despite the fact that there was some being performed right before his eyes.<p>

It was just after classes had ended and whilst Harry and Ron had taken their leave to attend Quidditch practise (Eren, Mikasa and Jean had gone to view said practise) – whatever that was – Hermione had kindly allocated herself into the role of a tour guide in order to show Armin to the Library. However, Armin had long since ceased listening to Hermione babble on about facts and myths and legends and God knows what else regarding the Library, and had instead focused his attention on how exactly so many books had been condensed into the room. He wasn't implying that the Library was in any way small, in fact it was definitely the opposite; it was positively huge, however the sheer volume of books packed in here was even more magnificent.

Armin was almost positive he had entered Holy territory.

"So," Hermione swivelled around, turning to face the awestruck boy, her face broke into a smile at Armin's reaction to the Library, "what do you think?"

"I-it's _amazing_!" Armin ran a hand through his blond hair, momentarily feeling a cool breeze tickle his forehead as he lifted his fringe away from his face before it fell back down again. "I don't think I've ever seen so many books in one place! I have no idea where to start!"

"Well, I can always give you some recommendations of some rather interesting books, however I'm not too sure whether you'll be able to understand some of them – I-I'm not saying that you're stupid or anything like that, but many of them discuss complex magical theories and being as you've only just learned magic was even real I just thought that-!"

Armin rubbed the back of his neck with one hand, using the other to wave his hand in a motion meant to reassure Hermione it was okay as he cut her off. "It's fine! I get what you mean, don't worry!" He thought for a moment, deciding what to say next before a sudden thought struck him. "Hey, you wouldn't happen to have any books on the 'Outside World', would you?"

"The… 'Outside World'…? What do you mean…?" Hermione questioned curiously. Armin gave a light laugh. That's right, this _is_ the Outside World, or at least their version of it, so of course she wouldn't have a clue what he was talking about. Therefore, keeping that in mind, Armin attempted a different approach.

"What about books about the world? Maybe about the 'Fiery Water' or the 'Fields of Sand'? What about the sea? Isn't it full of salt? And I read that it covers up most of the Earth's surface! Is that true?" Armin babbled on.

"'Fiery Water?' 'Fields of'- Oh! You mean like deserts and lava?" Hermione asked once it clicked in her mind. Armin's face lit up.

"Is that what they're called? Please could you tell me more?" He asked with apparent eagerness.

"Let's go and sit at a table then, it's going to get slightly uncomfortable just standing around, not to mention we'd be in the way,"

"Okay, how about over there?" Armin pointed out a small table near a window. Thin streams of light wavered in as the sun steadily continued its descent. It was still relatively light outside but it probably wouldn't be for much longer. This sort of thing was really messing up Armin's internal clock. Nevertheless, the two walked over and each took a seat. Armin found it reasonably difficult to get situated in the chair with his Gear constantly getting caught on the corner of the table. It clanked noisily as he settled down; earning a rather sharp 'shh' from a strict-looking passing woman whom Armin presumed was the librarian.

"Can't you just take your Gear off for now? It must be so uncomfortable to sit like that," Hermione looked to Armin with confusion.

Armin grimaced as he hit his knee off the underside of the table, the pain ricocheting through his leg for a moment. "I can't," He answered simply, "I have orders to ensure that I wear my Gear at all times just in case of an emergency."

"But I really doubt that anything is going to happen now, whilst you're in the Library," Hermione countered, seemingly bent on getting Armin to remove his Gear. Armin wasn't sure whether she was just concerned or whether the weaponry was causing her to feel uneasy.

"Eren was at a detention with Harry the last time the Titans attacked, I'll bet nobody was expecting that either." Armin didn't intend for that to come out as harsh, so he quickly tried to cover it up. "What I mean to say is; Titans could attack at any given time. Although it's unlikely, seeing as we aren't back where I'm from where the chances of an attack are much more likely. Here, there isn't a giant fifty-metre fortress to keep them out, so I, along with all the other soldiers, have to be ready at all times."

"Oh. I understand," Hermione looked down, knowing when it was time to drop a subject.

"Anyways, could you explain to me some more about the 'lava', the 'deserts' and the 'sea?"

"I would love to, Armin,"

* * *

><p>"How was practise?" asked Hermione as Harry and Ron climbed through the portrait hole, followed by Eren, Mikasa and Jean, into the Gryffindor common room.<p>

"It was terrible," Ron said with a sigh, in a hollow voice. He slumped down into a deep chair, with a light scowl, next to Hermione before sighing again. Hermione looked over to Ron, she gave a small hum and chewed on her bottom lip from inside her mouth before replying.

"Well, I guess it was only your first one," she said somewhat consolingly, "it's bound to take time-"

"Hey, he wasn't the terrible one!" Eren quickly snapped, clenching his fists in anger. It was then that Hermione seemed to realise that he was there. Eren pursed his lips to keep a lid on the rest of his burning anger as Hermione looked past him and towards Mikasa and Jean. She shrunk back in her chair lightly. Eren unclenched his right fist and ran his hand through his birds-nest of a hair-do, a hairstyle that made him appear as though he'd ran through a few bushes or had maybe not combed or brushed it for a few days. "I'm sorry," Eren suddenly reconciled, "I shouldn't have snapped like that. I'm just . . . I'm just really mad right now,"

"M-mad?" Hermione ventured, discreetly raising an eyebrow. Eren brought his hand down across his face, as though making an effort to physically wipe the anger from himself.

"There were some boys," Mikasa spoke, Eren turned his head to the right slightly, so that he could see Mikasa out of the corner of his eye. She was fiddling with the fraying edge of her red scarf, not looking at anyone in particular. Her dark eyes seemed blank and devoid of emotion, but Eren could tell that she wasn't happy with what had happened back on the Quidditch pitch. Those bastard Slytherin were absolute bastards. Eren began to bristle with anger again at the thought of them.

"Yeah, they were singin' idiotic songs and shit about how Gryffindor were losers and how they thought Ron's broom was crappy." Jean filled in; explaining what had happened in a rather simple way.

"Slytherin," Harry growled. Hermione gave an 'Ah' of understanding, before reassuring Ron and telling him to just ignore them. Stuff he probably already knew, Eren thought. He noticed a blond bob of hair, illuminated by the glowing fireplace, a figure seated on a large cushion on the floor. That reminded him, Eren wanted to ask how Armin's trip to the school library had been. Judging by the thick book bound in tattering brown leather settled across his legs, it went rather well. Armin had a small smile pulling at his pale lips as his blue eyes scanned frantically across the text – thank God for translating charms or whatever it was these wizard people used. Noticing how the others in the common room were eyeing them up, Eren could tell his presence was unwelcome. Although, he didn't want to go back to their dorm without Armin, so he mustered up the heart to break him away from his book for a while.

"Armin," Called Eren as he approached his childhood friend. "Armin. Hey, Armin!" Said boy always used to get like this when they were kids and Armin had managed to steal a book away from his grandparents. The times when everything was peaceful and their only fears were things like having Armin's grandparent's books confiscated by the Military Police. The times when bullies were the only threat to their wellbeing. They'd seemed so big and dangerous and overpowering at first, even to Eren, although that fear was only prominent before the events in which he'd met Mikasa. Afterwards he'd engaged in fight every time he caught them so much as touch Armin. It made him wonder what had happened to them. He was no big believer in anything to do with God or deities or any of that sort of things, but Eren's gut feeling told him that Karma had swung round and hit them in the face once the titans breached the walls.

Eren gently placed a hand on Armin's shoulder, giving it a light shake to get his attention. He smiled as Armin flinched and came back to the world of the living.

"Must've been a pretty interesting book. I was calling you for a while," Eren laughed, any residue anger he possessed dissipated into nothingness.

"What are you reading?" Mikasa asked, still standing near the sofa which Harry was now sat on.

Armin grinned, "It's all about the Outside World! Hermione's told me all about it, too!"

"What? Really! You gotta tell me all about it!" Eren leaned forwards in excitement, his arms bending at the elbow as he brought his fists up near his chin.

"Yeah, I guess I'd like to know what it's like out there!" Jean chuckled in agreement.

"You know, our world is still probably much different from yours," Hermione said, although she smiled as she spoke which meant she wasn't seriously trying to start anything.

"That doesn't matter!" Armin shook his head, "I'm sure your world may be more developed, but I'd bet the rural areas are pretty much the same! It's just that humans have inhabited here much longer than we've inhabited the Walls. As long as it sounds, one-hundred years is nowhere near enough time to get anywhere near as structurally developed as it is here,"

"It doesn't hurt to learn about a place that's never really been infested with man-eating giants though. You know, a place that humans have always pretty much had free-range in," Eren didn't miss the hints of jealously that accidently leaked from Jean's words. He couldn't blame the guy for being jealous though.

"Anyways, let's get going back to our dorm, I'm sure I heard Sasha and Connie in one of the corridors earlier, they're loud enough. But they're probably in our room now, we should all go down there and talk for a while before we have to go back to the Great Hall to grab some food," Eren stretched his arms above his head before reaching his hand back down to help Armin up. Armin tucked a scrap piece of parchment in between the slightly stained pages of the book before closing it and tucking it under his arm. His hand met Eren's and he allowed himself to be hauled to his feet.

Armin groaned as he stretched, placing his hands on his back as he leaned backwards, the bones popping back into place. It seemed he'd been sitting there for a while.

"Yeah, let's go," Armin agreed once he'd finished stretching. "Thanks again, Hermione! You're the best!"

"I-It was really nothing, Armin, any time!" Hermione blushed slightly at the thanks. "We should go to the library again sometime,"

Armin nodded frantically, "Yes, definitely! I'd love to! It's the best library I've-"

"Okay, enough book talk, come on, Armin!" Eren pulled his friend good-naturedly away by the arm and out of the common room. The four of them bid Harry, Ron and Hermione goodbye, with promises to talk at dinner now that they'd somewhat renewed their friendships again. Eren, himself, still couldn't keep up with what was going on between them, especially with Harry, but he'd found that they'd somewhat bonded upon watching his Quidditch practise. Eren decided that he was going to have to tell Armin all about it once they reached their dorm, flying, science-defying, broomsticks were definitely worth mentioning on any occasion, after all.

* * *

><p><strong>Sorry, this was really late again, wasn't it? I wrote this chapter slightly longer than some of the others to try and compensate, I hope you enjoyed it. <strong>

**Thanks again for the epic support on the story! :D**

**PS: Please wish me luck in my GCSE exams; I have four in this upcoming week! So it may take a while to update again due to having to revise, but I guess it has to be done! Hopefully I will have finished this story before this time next year, when I'm in year 11, because then I'll have double the amount the exams I have this year! **


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